Leaving it all Behind
by GroovyKat
Summary: Rose thinks that it's time to leave the TARDIS and the Doctor. He doesn't quite agree, but the TARDIS won't let him stand in Rose's way. How do they cope on their own, and just what - if anything - can bring them back together? Ten/Rose (Not so good at Summaries, really)
1. Goodbye

A/N: I am not abandoning Journey, but the muse bit me and demanded that I get this one out or she was going to fly off and leave me forever … which would probably be a good thing, _really_

Another post GitF fic to add to the growing list out there... Had to give it a shot myself. :)

Yeah. New fic, add disclaimer. I don't own Doctor Who, the characters, or the rights to it. I make no money off it – just having some fun with some really neat characters…

~~oooOOOooo~~

There was something rather brilliant about the steady glow of a fully healed and recharged TARDIS. That _something _extended far beyond the ability to finally take off back inside the Vortex to begin adventures anew. When _she_ wasn't feeling well, neither did _he_, and so to have his beloved ship humming a happy tune inside his head instead of the more recent shudders of discomfort, the Doctor was elated. His ship was happy, he was happy, and so the Universe could breathe a long sigh of relief that its loyal protector was back at the helm and ready to save the day again.

…Once Rose was back on board that is.

Rose. Oh his _poor_ companion. What wringers she had been put through these past couple of trips. She had such an unbelievable strength to her that he couldn't help but admire her with mild envy at just how strong she truly was. So to see her finally succumb and show such weakness after the loss of Mickey to the parallel world, the brutal death of her parallel mother, as well as the rejection of the man who was her father all inside a span of a few hours – _well_ – it broke his hearts. He didn't hesitate when she asked to see her mother. He didn't hesitate when she asked if they could stay a couple of days. He gladly agreed when two days became a week.

Oh, of course he had feigned a whimper and may have uttered a mild complaint about it – to save his reputation of course – But he swiftly acquiesced with the excuse that his TARDIS was ill, and so the extra time might just do her the world of good.

Truth was. He needed the downtime as well. He was as shattered as Rose was.

_Shattered? Over the loss of Mickey?_

No. He'd never admit that out loud. Mickey was a good and decent bloke who the Doctor had come to respect – all teasing aside. That daft young man who had clutched tightly onto Rose's legs in absolute terror after the Nestine Consciousness, was now a brave and capable man in his own right. The decision to leave it all behind to begin anew in the parallel world, where he could do so much good, was a choice that hit the Doctor hard inside his chest.

Brave. So Brave.

But his bravery had a cost, and that cost was Rose. His decision fractured her beautiful heart and bruised her deep inside her soul. The Doctor felt the pain within her. He felt it, he wanted to take it away from her, and if he had to pull the stars from the sky and give them to her on a golden platter, then by Rassilon he would.

…Because, he pretty much _could_, couldn't he?

The thought made him grin a wide smile as he quickly set coordinates to the most magnificent constellation in the universe, where they could simply hover in the purple, pink and blue nebulas so she could look outside the TARDIS doors and pick exactly which of the eight planets she wanted to see. And if she wanted to visit them all, then he'd take her to each and every one of them. He could hold her hand and let her curl herself around his arm as he told her stories about life on each of the planets as they watched the suns descend behind the mountains in a brilliant display of colour that would make her simply gasp in wonder.

His hand suddenly itched. He looked down at it with a mild frown as he recalled the last time that her hand was actually inside his. Oh. It had been a while. So long. Too long. This hand – his fighting hand – missed the warmth of hers. It was a hand that needed to be held, to be comforted, to become a lover and not a fighter.

Wait. What was he talking about again?

Further reflection fluttered from his mind as the TARDIS door squeaked open and Rose stepped on board the ship. He couldn't fight the beaming grin that flashed across his face to see her standing in the doorway of his beloved ship. The shroud of light from Jackie's living room behind her, and the gusting of the wind coming in through an open window shot a sharp breath into his chest; and for a moment he was taken back to the Gamestation, where a similar ethereal image gave him the Bad Wolf, salvation, a kiss and a new body.

"Rose," he breathed in awe as she stepped around the open door and pressed her back against its twin beside it.

"Hello, Doctor," she said along a breath that was more a whisper than a voice.

The Doctor blinked his eyes against the distinct overture of pain inside her greeting, but quickly shook it off and started his typical dance around the console.

"So where to this time," he asked with a cheer. "I'd like to give you the choice this time around, but I really did have such a good idea for where I could take you. I think you'd love it," he paused to tighten his teeth together in a manic grin, and perhaps to let her get a sigh, a smile, or a giggle in. She didn't and so he continued. "There's this brilliant constellation only a few hundred light years away from here. Eight planets all perfectly aligned along an orbit that has them in a perpetual ring around their…"

"I'm staying."

His words caught, and then he swallowed them as he tried to decipher the sounds from the doorway. If he wasn't mistaken – and he typically wasn't – Rose had just implied that she was staying.

But where?

He stopped his excited puppy bounce and pressed an unsure hand on the edge of the TARDIS console. "Excuse me?"

She slipped her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and looked off to one side, nodding with decision as she spoke. "I … I think I'm gonna stay," she answered softly.

He swallowed. "As in here … on the TARDIS, or…" He didn't want to finish that question.

"Here," she said weakly, with a tic of her head toward the doorway. "My … My mum needs me," she managed on a broken voice. "With Mickey gone, she has no one, and I just can't up and leave her."

"Oh." He couldn't shield his disappointment.

She looked to him quickly. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but…."

"We can come back more often," he interrupted quickly with the hope that it didn't sound too eager. "I mean. Sunday dinners every week if you want – until your mother is settled."

Rose gave a light snort. "Yeah. Like you would really want to stop and visit every few days."

He managed a cheeky smile. "_Well._ We wouldn't have to come back _every_ week. We have a Time Machine, yeah? A month or two travelling, return home in time for Sunday dinner with your mother." He scratched at his sideburn. "We could."

"With _your_ driving," she challenged. "We'd be lucky to make it home once a year."

"Once," he admonished indignantly. "One time I brought you home late."

She gave him a smile that held pure adoration. "I don't have enough fingers to count off the times that you – a _Time_ _Lord_ – messed up the dates…"

He rubbed a sheepish stroke of the back of his neck. "I'll do better."

Her smile faltered only slightly. "I can't, Doctor. I just can't leave her right now."

"Do you need more time," he offered softly. "We can stay a while longer if you want. Or. I could let you stay and come back in a month or so to pick you up."

She closed her eyes, and for a moment he let himself believe that she was seriously considering letting him do just that. That hope faded fast when she shook her head. Once again she took her eyes from his and looked everywhere but at him.

"No." she inhaled, and he could hear the incredible sorrow in that one, wet, sniff.

"Rose…"

She saw his tentative approach and shook her head to keep him in place beside the console. "Thank you," she said with a shudder. "For everything."

"Please…"

"You showed me so much," she continued. "And you'll never understand just how much I appreciate being able to travel with you; to see everything; to feel so much about … so much." She finally looked at him, her eyes red-rimmed and brimmed with tears. "You showed me that life is to be _lived_, and that it can take one person – only _one_ – to make such and incredible difference in the world .. in the whole universe."

He couldn't stay in place any longer and took several long strides toward her. "Yes," he began earnestly. "Yes. _One _person _can_ make a difference." He paused on the ramp about four feet from her. Presented, now, with the undeniable devastation inside her, he felt his knees weaken. The urge to tug her against him was overwhelming. "But," he choked. "A wonderful, brave, intelligent woman I know once said that it's better with two."

She chuckled wetly. "Flattery will get you everywhere."

"Will it get you to stay with _me_?"

At the tremor in his voice she immediately shot her eyes to his. "Please don't."

"Don't _what_?"

"Don't make this harder for me than it already is," she begged. Rose wiped at the tears on her cheeks. "It's taking every bit of willpower I have to walk away, Doctor."

"Then don't." He dared stride closer. "Don't walk away." His advance stopped when she visibly stiffened. "You can still travel the stars at my side," he ventured with false bravado and an even faker smile. "We can still explore everything the universe has to offer and then come home and visit your mum when she needs you." He grinned his tight-tooth grin and thrust his hands into his pockets. "Just a phone call away, right?"

"You don't need me," she huffed with perhaps a little more hurt in her voice than intended.

Okay, a lot more hurt than she intended to show – but nowhere quite as much as she really felt.

Oh, but he heard it. He heard it and actually stepped back a half stride at just how much hurt was conveyed. "What?"

She took a couple of calming breaths. "I mean. What I mean to say. What." She cleared her throat. "You'll find someone else," she managed finally. She looked up to him. "You always do, yeah?"

All he could do was stare at her with an expression of absolute confusion as to where this came from.

"It's not like I'm your _first_, Doctor," she explained. "Not the first in a long line of companions. I know that." She sniffed and looked away from him again. "I certainly won't be your last."

Something clicked. He wasn't sure exactly what or why, but it clicked. "Is this about Sara Jane? Because I thought we'd …"

"It's _not _about Sarah Jane," she clarified quickly. "Sure. That was an eye opener, but," she looked at him. "I understood what you were saying; what you were trying to get across to me."

"Then what?" His voice was barely a whisper. "I'm getting the impression that you wanting to stay has more to do with something other than your mother needing you."

"Maybe," she offered quietly. Then she smiled and stepped up to him. Rose ran her fingers along the lapels of his blazer, refusing to let her eyes meet his. "I have to do this," she squeaked sadly. "Because I can't do this any more."

The Doctor touched lightly at her elbows. Usually, this was his invitation for her to put her arms around his neck to hug him, but today she was ignoring his guidance.

"What can't you do," he questioned softly as his hands fell to touch almost imperceptibly at her hips.

She let her eyes slide up to meet his. A blink loosened the damming tears and they rolled shamelessly down her cheeks. "Love you," she huffed quickly, and then gasped as hit feather light touch became a sudden tight grasp on her hips. She writhed her hips to loosen his hold on them. "Doctor, please. Don't."

He didn't hear her plea. His focus was still stuck on the two words of declaration. "What did you just say?"

She had to laugh, a rueful one at that. "Don't tell me that you don't know, Doctor. I haven't exactly kept how I feel about you a secret."

All he could do was stare at her.

"And. Well." She rolled a shoulder and used the motion to pull back from him. "Recent _events_ have shown me that the feelings aren't reciprocated, and before my heart is broken any more than it is right now, I have to walk away."

"How have I possibly made you feel that way?"

At that, she laughed. If she was being honest, she would admit that, yes, it was a cruel laugh aimed at making her feel more confident to keep her resolve and walk away. "Oh, the list is long and varied, Doctor." She sighed as she recalled the space ship and the Doctor's hurtful abandonment as he ran – lovestruck – after a woman he'd known mere hours. The memories of that entire hurt-filled trip brought a fresh wave of tears, and even a single choked sob. "You'll be fine without me. I know it."

"I need you," he blurted suddenly.

She closed her eyes, dropped her chin, and shook her head. "No you don't." The Doctor shifted in a movement to suggest that he was going to snatch her against him in a crushing hug. She stopped him by pressing her hand against his chest. "A Time Lord doesn't beg," she chided softly. "And you're moving pretty quickly toward that territory right now."

"No, time Lords _don't_ beg," he confirmed. "But they do ask why, and put forth their own arguments."

"You want to know _why_?"

He put on his most confident expression and nodded as he folded his arms across his chest – a nervous and guarded stance. "Yes. I want to know why. I want you to tell me why _you_ – the one companion I've had that loves the universe, the travel, the danger and the beauty as much as I do – why you are willing to just walk out of my TARDIS doors and leave me."

Rose was expressionless as she stared into his face. She read the sudden insecurity in his expression, shielded behind his arrogance. "Because," she whimpered sadly.

"Because why?"

Rose lunged forward into his chest. She clutched at the lapels of his jacket and rose up high onto her toes and slammed her mouth against his in a crushing kiss that caught the time Lord completely off guard. His stance faltered a moment, and his arms flailed unsurely. But as her kiss became more aggressive and demanding, he gave a possessive growl and opened his mouth to hers. His arms snapped tightly around her to haul him up against him in a fierce embrace that lifted her feet from the ground as his mouth sealed firmly against hers.

Rose gave into the passion of their embrace for only a moment. She began to pull from him as she felt him begin to walk them backward toward a thick coral strut just off to the side of the ramp. For a moment his mouth followed the pull-back movement of hers to prevent them parting, but she quickly gained the separation she needed and gasped as she wriggled out of his hold.

"…Because you left me," she answered on a devastated breath.

He gaped in utter confusion and reached out to draw her to him again, hoping beyond all hope that he could probably kiss her to her senses and make her stay. "I don't…"

"I've gotto go," she managed with conviction and decision. "Thank you, again, Doctor. Our time together will stay with me for the rest of my life." She smiled weakly. "I'll love you forever."

"If I leave," he blurted on a voice more hurt than anything. "I won't come back."

"I know," she admitted softly. Her eyes tightened their close and her heart ached that he refused to acknowledge her love for him. "You never look back, I know that. This _is_ goodbye, Doctor."

"Please," he peeped. "Can you please just tell me why?"

"I did," she snapped with exasperation. "Because. You. Left. Me."

"I'm still here," he argued. He opened his arms in presentation. "Here, Rose. I'm here. With you. I haven't gone anywhere."

"Five and a half hours," she muttered more to herself than him and turned to walk toward the door.

His eyes flared in horrific realization to her words. "Rose. No. You can't. Not based on…"

"Good bye, Doctor. I'll miss you."

"Rose. Wait!"

Rose continued her stride, too scared to turn back to him in fear that she'd never leave. Her breath inhaled sharply and she found herself stepping backward when the door slammed shut in front of her. "What the…?" She flicked a look over her shoulder and saw that the Doctor still stood at the top of the ramp with a look of surprise as sharp as the shock she felt.

"TARDIS," she queried softly. "Oh, old girl."

"She doesn't want you to leave, either," he said with a slight amount of humour; an ounce of pride, and a splash of sorrow. "She likes you."

Rose smiled and stroked her palm along the door. "My sweet, beautiful, old girl. I'm _definitely_ going to miss you."

"She's sad," he offered gently. "You can break my hearts if you want to, but please don't break hers."

Rose pressed a kiss into the doorway and stroked lovingly at the white wooden surface as she dropped her forehead against it. "Look after him, TARDIS. Don't let him do anything stupid, okay? You just keep taking him to where he needs to be, okay?" She let her tears fall onto the grating at her feet. "You have to let me go, okay? You know he'll be fine. He'll find someone." She looked over her shoulder at him and gave a weak smile. "He always does, yeah?"

The ship seemed to rattle a TARDIS equivalent of a sad sigh.

"Don't open your door," the Doctor demanded of his machine. "C'mon Rose. Let's just head into the vortex for a bit and you and me, we can talk about this." He moved to the console to input a series of coordinates. "I think we've had a seriously huge misunderstanding, and I would really appreciate the opportunity to share my side of things before I let you walk out of my TARDIS."

"Let me out," she whispered against the machine's doors. "C'mon, sweetheart. Let me go."

"Coordinates set," the Doctor boomed from the console with a smile on his face. "C'mon Rose, one more trip. You and me. We'll sort this out. No rushing into hasty decisions." He looked up to the quiet time rotor and gave it a firm slap. "Come on, my beautiful ship. Time to move. I bet you're just _dying_ to get back up there."

Rose persisted her whisper against the doors of the ship. "Please TARDIS." Her doors opened finally, and Rose quickly stepped out into her mother's living room.

The Doctor's eyes widened and he quickly jogged toward the open doors. "Wait," he called as the rotor began to move. "Rose. Wait. Don't do this."

The Doors slammed shut in front of him and the familiar wheeze and whine of dematerialization filled the command deck. He punched once at the door with a growl of annoyance at his ship. "How could you," he demanded sharply as he turned and ran to the console to try and counter the commands he'd already set. His ship refused to obey his new coordinates.

"Take me back," he growled. "Don't just leave her there."

The TARDIS refused.

The Doctor tried again.

Still she refused to obey his command.

"Please," he pleaded softly as both eyes spilled long held tears down his cheeks. "Give me the chance to explain to her. To tell her."


	2. Trying to Make it

A/N: Whisper: _I hate filler chapters … I do … I could probably have done away with this, but I couldn't get right off to the good stuff straight away. Ducks in a row and all that crap. Now I can, though… _End whisper.

I big old huge smoochie thanks for the reviews to Chapter one! I love you all for taking the time to let me know what you think …. I hope beyond all hope that you will continue to enjoy the tale I have to tell …

~~oooOOOooo~~

Three months, twenty four days, four hours, fifteen minutes and thirty three seconds … thirty four … thirty five…since the TARDIS dematerialized and took the Doctor away from her forever.

If she didn't know any better, Rose might have suggested that she had managed to take a bit of time sense from her time travelling with the Doctor. Of course, she did know better and knew that it was just the absolute planet shattering pain of his loss that allowed her to hold so tightly to the months, days, hours, minutes and seconds since she'd walked off the ship and into her old life of work, eating chips, sleeping, work.

After so much time onboard the TARDIS, experiencing everything that the universe had to offer, having to return to the mundane existence of a regular Human girl was hard and incredibly painful. Especially painful considering after all she had seen and experienced that she, once again, ended up a lowly young store assistant working the floor of a large department store.

She was better than this. She knew she was. _He _had taught her that. The Doctor had told her time and time again that she was special, brilliant, fantastic, and _the Best_. Oh. If only he worked HR for half of the employers whose reception areas she had sat in waiting for an interview that, ultimately, went awry. _He_ would probably have made her the CEO of the company, and she wouldn't have to work the shop floor to make ends meet.

But. She made her decision to leave. She sucked it up, _Buttercup_, and moved on with her life, knowing that she would never hear the haunting whine and wheeze of that Beautiful TARDIS ever again. Knowing that the Doctor would never come back, that her hand would never again be held inside his, that she would never hear him tell her how wonderful she was – even when she was being a selfish and miserable git.

By God. She missed him.

Her melancholy mood wasn't helped by the fact she had been tasked with standing at a podium table folding the latest science-fiction-style T-Shirts that were black and carried the colours of the universe. She snorted at how the airbrushed imagery did absolutely no justice to the true beauty of the swirls and colours of the universe beyond Earth.

"Rubbish," she muttered under her breath. She harshly folded the garment and slapped it on top of the pile she'd already created with fifteen other identical shirts.

"'Scuse me, Miss. Do you work here?"

Rose's eyes rolled to the ceiling at the question. She allowed her mind to answer "_Why no, I don't actually work here, I just saw a pile of clothing that I felt needed folding so I went about and did it,"_ but vocalized a rather different answer.

"Yes, I do. Is there something I can assist you with today?"

"Well," the customer drawled along an American brogue. "I'm not entirely sure that I've wandered into the right department for this, but I'm currently on the search for a petite, yet deliciously curvy blond time travelling, alien loving, hypervodka drinking English girl to sate my need for one heck of a racy hug and squeal combination."

It took only a half of a nanosecond for Rose to identify the owner of the American accent. While her initial reaction was to give him the squeal and hug he had requested, she bit onto her excitement and merely gave a shrug of her shoulder.

"Unfortunately we have nothing of that nature in this store," she spoke over her shoulder. "But might I suggest that you go find yourself a…" She let up a squeak and then a sharp giggle to feel a strong set of arms circle her arms and waist from behind. She was lifted from the floor with her legs kicking playfully for escape. "Jack! Put me down!"

"Rosie," he breathed huskily in greeting against her ear. "How is the most beautiful of all time travelling beauties doing?"

She spun inside his arms as he let her feet touch the ground and squealed with delight as she bounced and threw her arms up around his neck. "Oh. God. I've missed you!"

He purred against her ear. "Mmmm," he hummed as he clutched her a little tighter against him. "Say _Oh God _again, will you?"

Rose laughed a laugh she hadn't been able to in months. "Oh _God_, _Jack_," she moaned in his ear.

He thundered out a laugh and then quickly grew conspiratorial. He looked over her shoulder. "We should play it cool, Rosie. If the Doc caught on, we'd both be in trouble." He looked around. "Where is that fantastic Leather wearing Gallifreyan stud?"

Rose let her hands slide down his shoulders to his chest and shook her head lightly. "He doesn't wear leather anymore," she offered quietly. "Pinstripes and Chucks are his thing now."

"Ahhh," he breathed in understanding. "The Doc went through a regeneration, right?" At her nod, he gave her a wink. "So. Tell me a racy regeneration tale. Tell me that you finally pulled that rod out of his ass and made him shove his _rod_…" He yelped as she slapped him against the shoulder. "Hey. That's assault you know."

"Justifiable," she countered somewhat arrogantly. "It's in the new books of the crown law that assault against one Jack Harkness is considered purely justified."

He merely laughed a series of open mouthed exhales at her. Then he dropped a kiss to her temple. "So where is our Time Lord, then? Waiting for you to knock off so he can take you up up and away in his magical blue box?"

Her body slumped against him and she shook her head. "We don't travel together anymore," she admitted softly. "I left the TARDIS Three months, twenty four days, four hours, thirty three minutes and twelve seconds ago."

"That's awfully precise," Jack said with an unsure and curious tone of voice.

She shrugged. "Clock on the wall," she offered. "Pretty easy to work it from there."

"I see," he huffed lightly. He then cupped a hand on her cheek and lifted her face up to look at him. "Mutual parting; or did one of you leave the other?"

She licked at her lip. "I left him." She looked away and closed her eyes as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "I couldn't do it anymore, Jack."

"I know you don't mean the traveling and fighting evil aliens thing," he said with a sympathetic stroke of her hair. "What did he do?"

"Nothing."

"Which is just the point, I'm guessing,' he deduced with a purse of his lips. "And being that he is a jealous old fool, I expect that he wouldn't let you get freaky with anyone else, right?"

She let herself laugh and roll her eyes. "Of course that's the be all and end all for you, isn't it?"

"It's ended many a fine relationship, Rosie, my love." He threaded his arm across her shoulder and pulled her against him. "Now let's get you out of this dive and let me take you to another one that serves alcohol and has a pool table, and you can tell me your sob story of love lost."

"I'm working," she warned lightly with a look at her wrist watch. "But I knock off in three hours, fourty three minutes and twenty one seconds, twenty, nineteen…."

"Nonsense," he growled. "A brilliant being such as yourself being held to time like that in a no-end job like this? I won't hear of it." He flicked his fingers at a woman who he assumed was the manager. "Hey you! Yeah. Black skirt." He pointed at Rose's head. "She quits."

"Jack," she squeaked as she grabbed his hand to pull it down. "Stop it."

He gave her a wink and tugged at her hand. "Come on, Sunshine. Let's get you out of here."

"I can't."

"The hell you can't, Rosie," he growled with a laugh as he hauled her up over his shoulder and made a fast paced walk to the door. "I'm not leaving you here. You're too good for this place."

~~oooOOOooo~~

Three months, twenty four days, four hours, fifteen minutes and thirty three seconds … thirty four … thirty five…since the TARDIS dematerialized and took him away from Rose forever.

It was sometimes amazing to the Doctor just how slowly time could tick away when he wanted it to go by fast. More than once he'd heard Rose complain about how time would just _drag_ when she wasn't having fun, or was _waiting_ for something fun to happen. More than once, he'd remarked on how they had a _time machine_ and therefore could bridge that dragging period of time in very short order. More than once, Rose playfully slapped him on the shoulder and chided him about waiting, patience, and how it made getting to their final destination that much more exciting.

_Pttthhhhbittt_

Pish posh on the waiting thing. Time Lords simply did not wait. Why should they? They commanded time, they _were_ time. So if they bloody well wanted to blast through time in order to bridge that boring gap of time then they bloody well should.

And. _Oh._ How he wanted to push forward the lever on his TARDIS to blast through the next two hours so he wouldn't have to continue to deal with…

"Doctor!"

He lifted his brows in what had become the most recent incarnation of a _smile_ for the lonely Time Lord and turned to face his newest companion as she strode into the console room.

_Right_. That's why he hadn't been able to throw forward the lever to blast him through the next two hours. The reason for needing to survive the next two hours resided on his ship…

"Nancy," he breathed in greeting. "You're awake."

She giggled and then moaned as she stretched her arms over her head and rolled up onto her toes in a complete body stretch. The move – he noted – was made with the specific intent for her shirt to rise up just enough that her taut mid section was on prominent display over the top of terrifically low slung and loose sleep shorts, which drooped low enough to show the lacy elastic band at their top.

The Doctor captured a brief snap-shot glance at the display, but then shrugged and pointed dismissively at her uncovered stomach. "You might want to think about covering up," he advised. "She doesn't like near naked women parading around her."

Nancy flicked a perfectly manicured brow high atop her forehead and sidled over to the console of the TARDIS to stand beside him. "Who doesn't?"

He slid his eyes toward her, and then to the Time Rotor in indication of the ship, but remained fairly silent.

"Got a girlfriend hiding in here?" she asked with a husky giggle as she walked her fingers up his pinstriped arm.

The Doctor snorted with a fair shake of his head and stepped a stride to the side. "Nope," he answered with a definite pop in his P. "Don't really go in for that sort of thing." He looked to the console monitor and slid on his glasses to analyze a new series of alerts that had flashed up. "Too busy, _really_, to bother myself with relationships and the such."

"I see," she muttered with a thoughtful cupping of her chin in her hand. "So is that all Time Lords in general, or just you?"

"_Well_," he began without really looking at her. "Being that I am the last time Lord in existence, then you could say it was _all_ Time Lords that were afflicted by this disinterest in _dating_. But in general…" He looked up to consider it a moment and then shrugged. "Maybe in the Academy random hookups occurred, but as part of the graduation ceremony, you get handed a spouse and are married off in fairly short order, so take that any way you please."

Nancy was intrigued. She bounced back to perch herself on the jump seat and eyed the Doctor with insidiously flaming hazel eyes. "So," she sang. "Did _you_ hook up?"

He ignored the implication in her tone and the obvious press for him to offer up something juicy. He didn't even look back at her as he continued to speak, instead focusing on the keyboard on the console. "A _hookup_ in the Academy wasn't a _hookup_ like those that you Humans are so fond of." He looked up at the monitor and squinted slightly as he looked through the scrolling Gallifreyan text. "Not even remotely close to a Human-variety _hookup."_

She licked at her lip and nodded. "So no getting freaky in the dorms, then?"

"Not as such, no."

"What about a hookup in the TARDIS?"

The Doctor snorted. "She's too jealous for me to partake in that kind of behavior." He gave a wink to the Time Rotor. "She'd probably kick out any females that tried to get – as you say – _freaky_ in the TARDIS with her pilot."

"You say that like she's alive."

"She is," he answered with an actual smile toward his ship. "My TARDIS is a sentient machine."

"Which means?"

"She's a living entity." He didn't feel like explaining beyond that and simply turned to look at his companion, finally. He pressed his rump against the console as he folded his arms across his chest. "So. If I were to admit to any kind of relationship at all, it would be with her, I suppose." He let one side of his mouth twitch upward in an attempt to smile. "My wife the TARDIS."

Nancy pursed her lips and let her brows knit together. "So. If I get this right. Your ship is alive, and you are in a relation-_ship_ with her?"

"I'm pardoning the pun, and yes. I suppose that I am." He dropped his chin to his chest. "In all of my years of travel, she has been the only one that I can truly say has never, and will likely never, break my heart or leave me."

"A-ha!" Nancy shouted victoriously.

His head shot upward. "What?"

"I knew it."

He cocked his head to one side and narrowed his eyes to look a narrowed field through his glasses lens at her. "What did you know?"

"The guarded and emotionless Time Lord is so ice cold because he had his heart broken."

"That," he snapped in both irritation and interruption. "Is none of your business."

She bit on her thumbnail and grinned as she gnawed. "What was her name?"

"Why don't you go and get dressed," he growled. "I don't fancy sitting around in the vortex all day doing nothing when we have a whole universe out there just waiting for us to explore."

"Tell me," Nancy pressed on with a coy and teasing glint in her eye. "Tell me who it was that broke the man and turned him into _you_: Mr. No Smile Grumpy Lord."

"She didn't _break_ me," he argued softly. "She made me better."

"Yes," she breathed facetiously. "I can see that. You must've been something else when the two of you met." She slid off the jump seat and adjusted the seat of her shorts with a snap of elastic. "You're barely human."

"That's because I'm not."

"Was she?"

"Please go and get dressed," he managed meekly. "We should be on the ground in a few minutes."

"Just tell me her name," she pressed. "And I'll leave it at that."

He looked pleadingly at her. "Why does it matter?"

She put her hand affectionately on his shoulder. She allowed her thumb to gently stroke against the thick fabric of his pinstriped blazer. "All joking aside, you're a good man, Doctor. I can't explain why it's so important to me to know who broke your heart. It just is, you know."

"Her name," he began with a clearing of his throat. "Her name was Rose."

"Rose," she repeated. "I expect she was as beautiful as one, too."

He raised his eyes to hers and actually smiled an almost imperceptible smile of recollection. "I speak five billion languages," he said softly. "And in all of those languages I can't find a single adjective – or even a combination of adjectives – that could in any way describe her to you and do her justice." His smile carefully emerged from within. "And, oh, she was brilliant. So very brilliant."

"Wow," she breathed wistfully. "You really loved her, didn't you?"

He cleared his throat and frowned in discomfort. "I am rather fond of her, yes."

"_Present tense_?" she queried on a high note. "Oh, then it must be pretty recent."

"Go and change into something more appropriate for where we're headed, please. I'd rather not continue to talk about what is an extremely private and personal matter with someone who is – for lack of a better description – still a relative stranger to me."

"A stranger who you invited to live with you on board your pretty space ship," she corrected with a light and airy chuckle. "Less than a day after we first met."

"I invited you on a trip," he corrected quickly. "One trip, that's all. To say thank you."

Nancy rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. She was by no means undeterred by the Doctor's words and tone. "Thank you for what? For loaning you my car which you wrapped around a pole less than twenty metres after you took it?"

"The Transdimensional portal was aligned vertically against that pole, and the only way for me to get it sealed and prevent a larger rip in the fabric of time was to slam the Nusoi back into the portal at high speed." He swallowed and took his glasses off his nose. He folded them and slipped them into his blazer pocket. "Your vehicle gave me the perfect means by which to do that."

"It wasn't because you just suck at driving and smashed my car."

He huffed. "I am a perfectly fine driver, thank you."

She wiped at her nose with her thumb. "So. You think it makes me feel better to know that you smooched an alien into a pole with the front end of my car."

"Makes _me_ feel better, anyway."

Nancy actually felt somewhat disgusted by that. "So. You're saying. That. You think it's _better_ to have deliberately smooshed a living creature with my car than to admit that you just don't know how to drive stick?"

"I think it's _better_ to be honest, don't you?"

Her eyes widened as they rolled and she turned to walk from the console room. "Right. Okay. I'm going to get dressed, then."

"Which means makeup and hair and shower et al?"

"Yes, Doctor."

He slumped. "So an hour? Hour and a half?"

She grinned and ruffled her hair. "I have to wash, dry and straighten this, so give me a couple of hours."

"Oh-kay," he breathed along a very long suffering breath. "I'm very sure that I can keep myself entertained while I wait for you to primp and preen."

She spun in her walk to blow him a kiss across the command deck. "Thank you, Sweetie."

The Doctor let out a long huff of a breath as he dragged himself back toward the console to enter a different set of coordinates – ones that would drop them on a planet and in a time where Nancy's makeup, clothing and hair straightening efforts would be … worth the effort.

"Rose," he breathed longingly as he scrolled through his choices. "I never had to wait for you, did I?"

He paused at the coordinates that sat in position one of the TARDIS equivalent of _speed dial._ The Powell Estates.

He closed his eyes over his hurt. "I miss you."

Three months, twenty four days, five hours, seven minutes and twenty two seconds … Twenty three … Twenty four…since the TARDIS dematerialized and took him away from Rose forever.


	3. Time Jump

A/N: One little F-Bomb in here courtesy of Jack. Just a heads up on that, because people don't like that word…. and lookee two chapters in one day… I'm on a roll. Seems that migraines are good for fic writing …. Or not .. I'll see if all this makes sense when the Advil kicks in…

Thanks again for the comments! Love hearing from you!

~~oooOOOooo~~~

Five months, two weeks, three days, eight hours, fifty minutes and six seconds since the TARDIS left and took the Doctor away from her forever.

This was one position that Rose Tyler didn't quite expect to find herself in when she accepted the invitation to join Jack Harkness on a date that would _Rock your world and would end up rendering your legs useless._

Then again, when Jack Harkness lays on an invitation that did promise to rock one's world, finding oneself laid flat on one's back, panting and gasping for air, grasping at the carpet, a blanket, a mattress, anything to try and ground oneself as he panted with equal exhaustion against one's ear was to be expected, wasn't it?

She could absolutely have told just that littlest of snippets to Shareen, to her Mother, to practically anyone, and it would have been quite enough to draw cheers, whoops and hollers. Jack Harkness was – after all – quite a fine specimen to find oneself in such a predicament with.

She knew that she would never be able to add the fact that she was on her back, panting and gasping for breath with Jack Harkness panting against her ear was because they were both lying together under a grating in hiding from a Phelph soldier. A Phelph soldier who wielded a gun bigger than anything Rose had ever seen and threatened to take both she and Jack down, including the whole of time and space with them, with a single blast.

Her breath started to taper out and she rolled her head to look toward Jack, who lay on his stomach beside her, propped up on his elbows, as he scrolled through information on an iPhone-type device.

"Jack?" Her voice was hoarse.

He gave her a light shush and pressed his finger against her lips. "He's close. Just relax I won't let him hurt you."

She smiled warmly against his finger. "I know," she whispered around his finger. "I trust you."

That made him chuckle deeply as he drew his finger from her mouth and gave her a wink. "You probably _shouldn't_."

Both held their breaths as the soldier stepped onto the grating above them. Rose bit at her lip and watched the slow and deliberate gait of the creature, while Jack shut off the light on his device and watched Rose closely, ready to quieten her if necessary.

Rose tilted her head at the creature walking above them, and tried not to flinch at the sight of the underneath of his small uniform skirt and the naked glory of the underneath of it.

_Hang on._

_Naked._

The creature had external genitalia that was typical for more than a handful of alien species that she'd encountered on her travels with the Doctor. Could that be an exploitable weakness if they happened to be discovered and they ended up in a life or death tussle?

She bit her lip and passed a look to Jack.

A brow arched high on his forehead as he tried to determine just what, exactly, was going through his companion's mind as they were given quite a show above them. Judging by the fact that her face wasn't reddening with the exertion of withholding laughter, he determined that his brilliant blonde partner was creating a rather impressive – and likely leg crossing – attack against the beast.

He licked at his lip. He gave her a slow blink. He smiled with absolute pride and awe.

How did the Doc let her just walk out of his TARDIS?

The soldier, his bowed and lanky orange legs bending awkwardly with each step, slowly passed over the top of their heads. Each of them exhaled that held breath so forcefully that it was only with a gasp that they could inhale once more.

"Are we good to move," Rose asked quietly as she began to roll her shoulders and shuffle her hips on the floor to wriggle out from the grating.

Jack put his hand on her arm to ask for pause. "Just give it a second," he warned. "The Pheph, they move quick and their hearing…"

"Is more sensitive than a Gallifreyan or an Ourc," she finished for him. "But their sight is very limited, as is their sense of smell, so as long as we keep our movements to a minimum we can evade direct attack in the dark."

"You've faced them before, Rosie?"

She shook her head. "No." She then passed her gaze around the immediate area and then closed her eyes to listen into the darkness for any further movement. She heard nothing but the hum of the ship's engine and the distant blasts of a gun fight to the other side of the ship. Her eyes flashed open and she gave Jack a beaming grin that could have lit up the room if she had an immediately available power source. "I think we're good now."

His lips were pressed firmly together and he gave her a solid nod of agreement. "If you're sure?"

She winked and grinned again – a manic smile so reminiscent of the mad man in a blue box. "We've got a hyperdrive to disable, don't we?"

"No sense in chinwaggin'," he answered back in a poorly put on Northern Accent. "Let's go and cause a little bit of explosive destruction."

"Oh Jack," she chuckled on a husky laugh. "You're singing our song."

"I thought that was Glenn Miller," he chuffed with a wink. "Or was that you and the Doc?"

She wriggled her head and shoulders free of the grotty pit below the grating and clawed her fingers into the edge to push herself completely free of it. "It will _always_ be _our_ song," she promised.

He slid out from beside her and paused to wait for her to brush herself free of dirt and grease. He smirked when all she did was shake herself off and then take off with a skip into a run toward their original path.

A girl who loved to get dirty.

Just what the _fuck_ was the Doc thinking letting her walk out of his TARDIS?

He jogged quickly to catch up to Rose and wore a shamelessly proud smile as he paced her flawlessly to her right. "So?"

"Yeah?"

"Whatcha think," he urged with a sly wink and a nudge at her shoulder with his. "Do you think you might want to hang about with me and the team and get paid for getting all dirty with the off worlders?"

"Gee," she sang with a roll of her eyes. "I just don't know how you could possibly ask me to leave the joys of working in a department store to come and play about with you lot." She checked out her fingernails, all chipped and broken from scrambling in the dirt. "I might get dirty."

He purred huskily in her ear. "Ahh. But we boys just love to find ourselves a real _dirty_ girl, don't we?"

She giggled a horrifically girlie giggle, which quickly morphed into a low chuckle as they rounded a corner to step into the main engine room of the Phelph ship. "Oh. Look at what we have here," she purred. She slid her eyes to Jack and bumped his hip with hers. "Ready for some boom boom?"

He should have laughed at the mascara and eyeliner smears across her cheeks making her look like a human/raccoon hybrid, but he couldn't help but gently wipe his thumb along her cheek instead and look upon her with awe. "You, Rose Tyler, are one in a million."

She gasped a laugh and grabbed at his hand to tug him toward the hyperdrive engines. "Not _that _kind of boom boom, Captain Jack."

He slumped dramatically and held at his chest. "Oh. You shatter my heart you little tease."

"Oh stop it," she charged with a smile as she bolted toward the main hyperdrive control.

Her run toward the control console suddenly slowed, and she struggled to move as though the air ahead of her had turned into thick molasses. There was a fluttering inside her chest, and then a pounding inside her heart as she felt herself dragged back by what felt like a thick elastic band.

Inside a second, the thickness around her disappeared and she have a single staggered step backward as Jack stepped toward her and affectionately brushed his thumb across her cheekbone. "You, Rose Tyler, are one in a million."

She exhaled her breath and tried her darndest not to look puzzled as she gasped a deep breath. Words entered her mind and then through her lips as though rehearsed. "Not _that _kind of boom boom, Captain Jack."

He slumped dramatically and held at his chest. "Oh. You shatter my heart you little tease."

Her eyes were wide and Rose shook herself as she repeated words already spoken. "Oh stop it."

Jack grinned as he looked toward the main console and took her hand in his. He tugged her to follow him. "Come on, Rosie. You and me, let's make some noise."

~~oooOOOooo~~

Five months, two weeks, three days, eight hours, fifty minutes and six seconds since the TARDIS left and took him away from Rose forever.

And things hadn't really gotten much easier for the Doctor as he continued along his path of flying on his TARDIS into mischief, mahem, and the awe and spectacular beauty of the universe.

Okay, the mischief and mayhem had taken somewhat of a backseat to the more relaxing and beautiful planets that the universe held within her precious grasp. Shopping on market planets, sunsets across mountainous planets, feasting on restaurant planets, even a tightrope jaunt between planets for a lark.

He was getting pretty bored, actually.

His companion was still in a state of being _worked in_ to the Time Lord and TARDIS way of living. Nancy was very much a girlie-girl, and very unlike any companion he had ever had before. She was the total and exact polar opposite to Rose. He chose to invite her as a F_requent Flier_ only because the Doctor knew that there would be no possible way in this universe or any other parallel world that she would give him any reminders of the woman who crawled into and then shattered his fragile hearts.

But in the name of _Rassilon_ was he finding himself bored. So bored. So very bored that he kept a vigil on the colour of his hands anticipating regeneration though sheer boredom.

It was possible.

Absolutely it was.

Just you wait and see.

Today, the Doctor and Nancy had landed the TARDIS on a remote man-made observation island in the centre of a water planet called Periph. The inhabitants were a friendly sort that stuck to the water rather that come onto the very sparse areas of swamplands scattered across the vast oceans.

The Doctor had travelled here several times and had spent many days swimming alongside many of the local inhabitants. For all he had experienced on Periph, he had never seen anything that might suggest that there was any aggression between species. It was cohabitation at its very finest, and he did love it here.

Standing at the doors of the TARDIS and looking across the bluest of blue waters underneath a flaming red sun, the Doctor pondered why he'd never brought Rose here. She would have loved it. It was serenity, it was romance, it was wonder and awe and inspiration presented in the spray from a Paylp's blowhole, or the gimmer across the rippling waters, or in the song of the Uene people that burst through the surface of the waters as they sang for a mate. Oh yes. Rose would have loved it here.

Or would she?

He gave a short laugh to himself. Would Rose have loved the quiet serenity offered by this spectacular planet? It was, after all, serene. No way she'd get her fill of adventure and getting dirty here.

Oh no. She would love it, he decided. Rose would have her kit off and would have dived into the waters without a second thought once he told her about the inhabitants of the planet. He'd have bobbed in the water, the crystal clear waters not hiding any part of her red bikini from him, and egged him to drop his trousers and join her.

The Doctor grinned to think about it. He could picture the sudden glint in her eye as he explained how none of the creatures on this planet were terran, that they all lived under the waters. She'd tease a comment about _mermaids and mermen_, and roll her eyes when he lightly chided her for being racist – or _species-ist_ as she called it - for lumping any and all humanoid aquatic species as Mermaids and Mermen. And then, after she had touched her tongue to her teeth in a teasing smile and leaned against his arm, with a wriggle, a giggle, and a wink, she'd launch off, haul off her shirt and shorts, and then dive straight into the waters…

…All before he'd even had the chance to let her know whether or not the locals were even friendly.

Why didn't he bring her here?

"Doctor?"

He inhaled a deep breath of salty air and looked down his shoulder with glassy eyes and no real smile except for his arched brows and warm eyes to greet her. "Nancy. Glad you could make it."

She rolled her eyes and let out a sigh as she twisted her long brown ponytail with both hands over her left shoulder. "So where are we then?"

The Doctor held out his elbow to allow her to hook her arm through it and led them out of the TARDIS and onto the observation platform that led to the waters like a beach. "This," he began in his lecturing tone. "Is the planet Periph. It's the forth planet in the constellation of Teallik, and home to the majestic Uene people." He smiled. "Oh, and they're such a delightful species, too. They are amphibious, but spend their entire lives in the water."

Nancy pursed her lips. "Really? Amphibious, like frogs?"

He dropped a brow and shook his head. "No. They're more humanoid than that. I suppose you could compare them to mermaids or mermen, with their humanoid upper body and fish-like tail, but the name mermaid is synonymous with evil sirens that murder innocent sailors, so I prefer that we didn't refer to them by that name. Not that they'd know the difference, really, the Uene's that is." He urged her to step forward. "Did you happen to bring your bathing costume? We could go into the waters and meet some of them."

"Well…"

"Oh, I haven't been here in such a long time, I don't know that any of them would know me. They have a short lifespan, which is very upsetting. Typical mortality rates fall into the thirties – by Earth years – but they have been known to live until the rip of age of fourty five or so." He scratched at his sideburn, and then pulled free of Nancy to unbutton his blazer. He toed off his Chucks. "It's been. _Well_. About seventy years since I was last here.."

"Doctor," Nancy interrupted. "What are you doing?"

He let his blazer drop off his shoulders and loosened his tie. The look on his face suggested that she should have known exactly what he was doing. He undid the latch on his trousers and lowered the Zip. "I'm going in."

Nancy was quick to cover her eyes. "What do you think you're doing?"

He held off from dropping his trousers, instead holding them up with one hand bridging the gap between sets of zipper teeth. His other hand found its place on his hip. "Come on, Nancy. Don't be so dull. Get down to your bathing costume and join me in the water. Trust me, you're going to love the Uene people. Really."

She shook her head and looked to the sea with disgust. "Oh. I'm not going in there, Doctor." She motioned retching. "I hate the ocean, I do. All those fish and slimy creatures."

"Oh come on," he teased lightly. "Live a little, Nancy. Throw it all to the wind and just leap in." He gave her the first smile he had ever aimed in her direction and held out his hand to her. "Come with me and let me show you the world under the waters. I promise you. You'll love it."

She shook her head and flicked her hand at him as she settle into a seat on the sandy ground. "Go right ahead. I think I'll just catch some rays. Spending so much time in the TARDIS and on some dark and dreary planets hasn't done much for my colour."

The Doctor couldn't shield his absolute disappointment. "Oh."

"And besides," she continued. "I just conditioned my hair. The sea water will ruin it."

"Yeah," he muttered as he let his trousers fall and he harshly pulled his tie from around his neck and undid the buttons on his oxford. "Of course it's always better with two, but I'm sure I can enjoy this as much on my own."

"See you soon," she called as she lay back on the sand.

"Yep," he popped in annoyance as he took off in a run toward the edge of the platform in only his undershirt and Boxer Briefs. Her loss.

He let the rays of the red sun kiss at his cheeks and smiled as he ran and leapt into the air to fall into a dive toward the water. A fluttering inside his chest, an uneven thundering of his hearts, and the Doctor gasped for breath. There was a soupy tightness that surrounded him. He felt a vacuous pull against him, that drew him back to the sands on the beach.

His body gave a shudder, and his vision cleared. Once again he stood before his companion holding closed the fly of his trousers.

She shook her head and looked to the sea with disgust. "Oh. I'm not going in there, Doctor." She motioned retching. "I hate the ocean, I do. All those fish and slimy creatures."

"Oh come on," he teased lightly with a furrow in his brow at the clear deja vu. "Live a little, Nancy. Throw it all to the wind and just leap in." He looked somewhat confused as he looked in her direction and held out his hand to her. "Come with me and let me show you the world under the waters. I promise you. You'll love it."

She shook her head and flicked her hand at him as she settled into a seat on the sandy ground. "Go right ahead. I think I'll just catch some rays. Spending so much time in the TARDIS and on some dark and dreary planets hasn't done much for my colour."

He was disappointed. No sense in hiding it. "Oh."

"And besides," she continued. "I just conditioned my hair. The sea water will ruin it."

"Yeah," he muttered as he let his trousers fall and he harshly pulled his tie from around his neck and undid the buttons on his oxford. "Of course it's always better with two, but I'm sure I can enjoy this as much on my own."

He didn't bother to listen to whatever she said next as he once again jogged toward the water's edge. This time, however, he paused before jumping in.

A Time jump.

That was an anomaly he hadn't felt in quite some time.

Worth looking into perhaps? He looked to his TARDIS, who sat quietly on the sands. If she wasn't worried, then there was no reason he should be. Ahhh. Perhaps it was just a glitch. They happened from time to time.

He shrugged and rolled a shoulder as he once again let the rays of the sun kiss at his pale cheeks.

Time to meet the neighbours.


	4. Questions

A/N: Wow! So many reviews! Thank you so very much! I'm glad to know that my wee tale is being enjoyed and that you're all taken enough by it to comment. There is no greater inspiration to keep going than to hear people are reading and enjoying it.

This tale is going to run ahead from here. I've no intention of dragging this out like Journey is, so … here we go. Hopefully this is the start of some whoop whoop Time Lord style.

As always, it depends on how well these characters behave…. They get naughty on me from time to time and throw me off…

~~oooOOOooo~~

Seven months, one week, four Days and … however many hours … since the TARDIS dematerialized to separate Rose and the Doctor forever.

Jack Harkness wasn't one to measure time in the manner that Rose Tyler had been doing of late. He had the months/weeks/days thing down – Rose broke it down for him at least once a day when she found herself thinking of her mad man in a blue box – but the hours/minutes/seconds? Who could really be arsed working that out?

Okay. One Rose Tyler could.

Not that Jack was hanging on to any real belief that Rose was taking any time to work out anything of that nature. No. It seemed to be that her sense of time was somewhat autonomous where the Doctor was concerned.

She could break it down to the millisecond the last time that she saw him. The last time that she kissed him. When it was that he finally broke her heart – and one day she will explain to him just _how_ the Doctor did that – and even when he regenerated into a new man. Rose was even able to break down to the millisecond when it was that Jack came on board the TARDIS and changed the dynamics of the console room completely.

Of course. Rose being Rose, she was probably bluffing. That would make sense. Rose making up these impossible time span calculations just to raise his brow and make him think.

And she did that: Made him _think._

Admittedly they weren't always the most _Doctor-Friendly_ kinds of thoughts, but they were thoughts nonetheless. Oh boy. If the Doctor could possibly see any or all of the more _indecent_ thoughts in his head involving Rose Tyler, he'd probably fly in with the TARDIS and land the ship directly on top of him in a jealous and territorial rage.

Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is dead….

He snorted as he thumbed through a horrifically small phone bedazzled with rhinestones and a trinket hanging from the antenna. A trinket that may or may not have been a Winnie the Pooh charm during its better days.

It was a good thing he was secure in his sexuality, he thought belatedly as a young man wearing a leather jacket, ripped jeans, Doc Martens and sporting about twenty different piercings in his head commented on how _pretty _the phone was. Yes. The phone was pretty. Of course it was. It belonged to a very pretty girl who liked very pretty things…

And while Jack liked _pretty things_, they typically fell in the category of long legs, bright eyes, full lips, firm backside … Not antiquated communication devices such as this Nokia. But he had swiped this phone from Rose's desk at Torchwood for a very specific reason, so to hell with how it looked for him to use a bedazzled phone. She had a contact buried inside this phone that he wanted to connect with. He could deal with sunlight on rhinestones and the occasional comment on his choice of _pretty._

Of course it was more fun to smirk, wink and say "If you think this is pretty, you should see the woman who owns it," and then give a dirty pelvic thrust.

In fact. He'd do that on the very next wise ass comment from one of London's finest examples of the future – the teenager.

It was an arduous task to try and filter through all of the contacts on her phone; she had so many of them locked up in there. But finally he saw a familiar name. Jack's face broke into a grin when he found the contact he had been looking for.

_TARDIS. _

Jack knew there would be no way that Rose would ever delete this contact. It would be a cold day in hell before she would ever completely sever the tie between her and the Time Lord. Even if she never used this contact again, she would never hit delete. Never. He also knew that there would be no force in the universe that would see the Doctor ignore her if she tried to reach out to him. He would no doubt materialize that TARDIS of his beside where she stood less than a second after she hit send on a text message.

Separated only in body these two, he surmised.

Well. He hoped.

Rose hadn't been too forthcoming with her reasons for leaving the Doctor, only that she couldn't do the unrequited love dance anymore. Jack could hope that the Doctor might be a little more open with the reasons…

That made him laugh. Out loud. Where other people could hear him and make their judgments on his sanity.

There would be no way that the Doctor would fill him in any more than Rose had. But that didn't matter. He wasn't trying to reach the Time Lord for an explanation on _that_. That was none of his business. No. He had another more pressing reason to contact the Time Lord.

He typed a single word into the text screen: _Mauve_.

He hesitated for just a moment with his thumb over the button that would send that message across time and space in search of the TARDIS. That word should be message enough. The signal should be strong enough for the TARDIS to lock onto.

He knew he shouldn't. Rose wouldn't be too impressed. But what choice did he have?

_~~oooOOOooo~~_

_Five hours, ten minutes, three seconds earlier:_

_She thudded into the ground, shoulder fist, but firearm aimed into the darkness ahead. "I said drop your bloody weapon and stand down or I am going to blow one or both of your heads off," she yelled to the beast beyond the doorway._

_Jack skidded by her and hooked his arm underneath hers to pull her to her feet to keep running at his side. "Now now, Rose. I don't mind you threatening the head on the shoulders, but I take issue with the below the belt threats."_

_Rose scrambled to her feet and ran a sideways stride for several steps before turning to face the direction she was running. "If I was going for the _lower_ brain, I would have told him he'd lose all three heads," she corrected as she ran and popped the magazine on the gun to make a count of her remaining shots. "Crap. Down to four."_

_Jack rounded them both past a corner and pressed his back up against the wall, with a nod of his head to tell Rose to do the same. He dipped to one side to pull extra charges from the thigh pocket of his black pants. "Here you go. Remind me to have you on the firing range to refine your shot when we get back."_

_"__In any other situation," she breathed with a smile as she leaned forward to look past him at the corner in watch as he reloaded his own weapon. "I would rip that reminder apart."_

_He snorted and slammed the magazine back into the handle of his gun. "Then have at it. I could do with the laugh."_

_"__And potentially raise your pheromone levels," she queried in worry. She shook her head. "You should have mentioned that we were up against members of the Graugiz tribe."_

_"__We're not," he countered as he peered around the corner. "Intel says we're up against a Grealfihre." He let his gun fall to the space between his legs as he leaned forward again to look around the corner. "The Stiep enzyme in these charges was supposed to drop them."_

_"__The Graugiz are a mutated form of the Grealfihre," she lectured gently. "Created by the royal scientists in the pursuit of creating the ultimate soldier."_

_Jack groaned. "Those pursuits never end well."_

_"__They don't do they," she said with a smile. She inhaled a sniff in the air and locked a glare on Jack. "We have to move," she demanded. "Now." _

_He withheld a yelp as she grabbed the collar of his jacket to haul him off the wall. No sooner had they stepped away from the wall, it splintered into pieces with a blast of a large weapon from the other side._

_Jack gasped in horror even as he thanked every God in creation for getting him off the wall in time. He looked to Rose, who had her face set in hard concentration as she stood in the junction of a corridor and assessed just which direction wouldn't get them both killed. He stood with his back to the end of the corridor as he focused on the woman in front of him, and how tightly her focus was into the darkness ahead of her._

_"__Rose. What are your thoughts?"_

_She spun suddenly and launched herself toward him. He expelled a hot breath as she collided against his chest and threw her arms up around his neck. Not one to deny a beautiful woman a hug, and worried that perhaps she was beginning to get scared, Jack wrapped his arms protectively around her waist._

_Any concerns he had about her wellbeing were quickly squashed as she squeezed off a pair of shots from her firearm and then kicked out his leg to drop him to his knees to escape the sudden blast of fire across the ceiling above their heads._

_"__What in the name of…?" He gasped as Rose drew herself to a stand and narrowed her eyes into the darkness once more. "Rosie?"_

_She looked down at him. "You need a pair of shots, one to each shoulder. They were modified, mutated, from their true biological form to appear to be invincible to traditional attacks. Their vital structuresand greatest weaknesses are in their shoulders." She slapped the rotator cuff on each of her own shoulders. "Hit them there, and it's like a self destruct button."_

_"__They engineered them to self destruct?"_

_Rose shrugged. "Even the Daleks have a self destruct feature." She panted slightly and let her eyes focus on the floor. She seemed to Jack to be calculating something in her mind. "They have a ship hovering in the outer atmosphere. It's searching for…" She suddenly paused, her eyes wide and stunned._

_"__Rose?"_

_Her eyes moved to look into his. "It's searching for the signal that was supposed to be sent from the Graugiz soldiers on the ground."_

_Jack really didn't like the meek manner by which Rose was speaking. He put his hand on her shoulder. "Rosie. You okay?"_

_She shook her head as she glanced up at him with a look full of confusion. "Didn't you feel that?"_

_"__Feel what?"_

_"__Like a thick soup," she answered. "Like I walked into a soupy bubble and was thrown back – in time – to repeat the last few seconds."_

_His brow flicked upward. "No," he answered carefully. He pressed his hand into her forehead. "Are you feeling okay?"_

_"__Duck!" she yelled in response and aimed her gun over his shoulder. "And stay down!" She squeezed off one shot, then swung her firearm to the side to pull off another. She remained standing tall as sentinel over Jack until the blastwave of the self destruct roared overhead. She dropped into a crouch, but one that sat relatively tall. Her eyes were dark, her expression threatening as footsteps down the hallway indicated more soldiers were on their way._

_Jack squinted in an attempt to see into the darkness ahead in the corridor, and grunted when he found that he couldn't see beyond the reach of his hand. "Sounds like we might be outnumbered, Rosie."_

_She continued to stare into the corridor and shook her head. "Two. Three at the most."_

_"__It sounds like a tribe of them."_

_"__There's movement at the end of the corridor," she advised. "The moving shadows indicate a pair." She exhaled. "The Graugiz instinctively walk a heavier gait and use the strike of their tail on the ground and on objects around them to appear to be in larger numbers than they actually are." She swallowed. "If you can isolate the harmonic resonation produced by the sliding stride of their feet through the small pocket of cold air between the tiled floor and the heat vents and then focus on the more distinct tread patterns, you can fairly easily determine an accurate count."_

_"__Oh-kay," Jack breathed suspiciously. "And so your _maybe two, maybe three_ is…?"_

_She laughed and rolled her eyes. "Please. I'm not the Doctor, okay? I don't have _his_ accuracy in these things."_

_"__But you're also not lucky guessing, either?"_

_She nudged him with her shoulder. "He and I traveled together for a long time, Jack. Some of that stuff will rub off on me, right?"_

_He hooked an arm around her shoulder and kissed her hard on the temple. "If the Time Lord wouldn't, then his teachings may as well."_

_Rose giggled beside him. "Who said that he _didn't_?" She teased him with a wink as she jogged down into the darkness and dropped into a crouch with her weapon held upward in wait for the remaining soldiers. Jack dropped down beside her. _

_"__Care to elaborate?" He squinted in his unending battle to see into the darkness. For show, more than anything, he held his weapon upward. "Was there fire in that Time Lord afterall?"_

_She exhaled slowly and then hardened her gaze into the darkness ahead as the figures came into view. "He has fire," she whispered. "I just wasn't the blonde who ignited it."_

_Her entire face lit up with the chamber blast of her weapon as she fired four shots in a quick, side to side firing combination into the darkness ahead of her. She raised her head to watch the fire blast shoot by above their heads._

_"__Right," she muttered on a low and croaked voice. "We have about fourteen minutes, fifty five seconds until the distress signal is released to the ship waiting up there." She jutted her chin upward. "We need to counter that with a signal that states all is A-Okay down here."_

_Jack snorted. "Got any plan on how to manage that? I don't exactly speak Grogaz…"_

_"__Graugiz," Rose corrected with a smile. "And I think this might be your lucky day."_

_"__Oh?"_

_She winked. "I can."_

_He watched as she jumped up and ran into the darkened corridor, her fingertips trailing along the walls wither side of her. He swiftly launched from his own squat to follow. "You can?"_

~~oooOOOooo~~

There was no choice…

Jack pressed the top of the phone into the deep cleft in his chin and pressed the button to send the message. "Okay, Doc. Ready when you are."

It was within a second of the message being sent that the first whistling pops of TARDIS materialization began to sound off to his right. The pops moved into the unmistakable whining and groaning, and Jack turned fully to face the doorway as it solidified only a few feet ahead of him.

Jack waited patiently for the few seconds it took for the door to creak open and the Doctor to cautiously curl himself around the door to exit. His searching eyes instantly scanned the immediate area. It was obvious that the Doctor fully expected to find Rose and not Jack by the sudden dejected slump in his body when he caught sight of the former Time Agent.

"Oh. Jack," he muttered in a slightly disappointed tone as he thrust his hands into his trouser pockets and rocked back on the heels of his Chucks.. "I was expecting someone else."

Jack held up the phone. "Yes. I know. You were looking for our Rosie."

The Doctor's eyes locked on the white and sparkling phone in Jack's hand. He'd know that phone anywhere. He'd actually watched with an arched brow of amusement as Rose had set about with a glue gun and a bag of glittering stones from the surface of Kierroti to decorate the phone. He could still see that plump and pink tongue of hers seated on her lip as she concentrated on getting the placement of each stone just perfect.

So why did Jack have her phone; and where was Rose? He looked quickly to the handsome former Time Agent.

"Where is she?" There was a hint of alarm in the Time Lord's tone as his eyes moved to look at Jack. "Is she okay?"

"Well," Jack breathed with a deep breathy extension on the word. "She's not _hurt_, if that's what you're asking."

"Is she okay," the Doctor repeated. "As in is my Rose Tyler safe and free from any form of harm – physical or emotional?"

Jack stared at the Time Lord for a long moment. He probably should have taken a moment to gasp and remark on just how _different_ he looked now than when he wore leather, but Jack didn't really feel the urge to vocalize those observations right now.

Especially when a very pretty brunette burst through the doorway of the TARDIS and spent a moment looking around.

"So where are we now, Doctor," she breezed in a husky accent that could have fallen straight off the tower of Big Ben for how proper it was.

Jack's brow rose high. He looked at the girl, and then looked to the Doctor with a questioning glance.

"Oh," the Doctor breathed quickly in embarrassment. "Right. Yes. Jack, this is my companion, Nancy. Nancy, this is Captain Jack Harkness – otherwise known as a fella you should probably steer clear of."

Jack snorted with a roll of his eyes and dipped forward to take Nancy's hand in his. He smiled as he pressed a gentlemanly kiss against her wrist. "Nancy, it's a pleasure." He stood up tall at her giggle. "I wouldn't pay any mind to what this idiot has to say about me. Not so skilled in the art of wooing the ladies."

The Doctor rolled his eyes impatiently. Nancy slid her hand from Jack's so that she could giggle girlishly into it. "Why, Doctor, you didn't tell me that your friends are so handsome." She then looked around. "So where are we, then?"

"Earth," the Doctor answered briskly. "London, to be more precise. Twenty first century."

She seemed quite disappointed. "Oh. So you've basically brought me back home, then?"

The Doctor rubbed at the back of his head and nodded. "Yes. I suppose that I have." He gave her a look and a shrug. "We could be here for a couple of hours, maybe the rest of the day, so if you want to take some time to visit your family, catch up, feel free."

She shuffled her foot in the grass at her feet and batted long lashes loaded down with mascara toward Jack. "Well. What would _you_ be doing?"

"Nothing you'd be particularly interested in," the Doctor deflected quickly. "Just some basic … uhm …"

Jack shook his head with a chuckle. "Oh. Chances are I'll have to drag this lump of useless alien into the bowels of a factory to get all down and dirty with a couple of nefarious alien invaders."

"Oh yes," the Doctor added quickly. He turned up his nose. "Could be ooze and sludge and alien bile. Not very pretty." His eyes widened with feigned excitement. "But of course if you want to tag along and get dirty with a couple of Time lads then you are most welcome to."

Jack fired a rather disgusted glare of warning toward the Doctor. "Oh. I don't know that it would be a very good idea, Doc. The golden one might not be too receptive of another XX'er."

"That is a very good point," the Doctor agreed thoughtfully. He looked to his companion with apology. "It would be very foolish of me to ask to join us in this instance," he said reassuringly as he put both hands on her upper arms. "Certain alien species do get quite territorial when in the presence of …"

She waved her hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah. I get it." With a roll of her eyes she smiled and stroked her hands down her hips. "You know I don't like to get all messy, anyway, Doctor," she purred. "So you two go and have your alien-hunting fun and I'll go and have a mani pedi or facial at my favourite spa."

The Doctor leapt on that immediately. "Brilliant! Then off you pop. Jack and I can get up to our own little brand of mischief, and you will be find to engage in your own."

Nancy smiled, licked at her lip and then cast a coy look toward Jack. "And then, maybe, we can all go for dinner?"

"Yeah. Sounds good." He shooed her with his hands. "Now, off you pop. Facials are awaiting."

Nancy squeaked and skipped of with a light guiding push from the Doctor. She waved a wriggle of her fingers as she disappeared into the crowd.

The Doctor turned to look at Jack and set his expression to neutral – yet annoyed – at the amused smirk. "Just don't."

"Don't _what_?"

"Don't say it, okay?"

"Oh. I'm not going to say a word about _that._"

The Doctor flicked his fingers in a request for Jack to follow him into the TARDIS. "I'd rather appreciate that you didn't." He shot a glare to the Time Rotor. "_She_ hasn't shut up about it since Nancy joined us four months ago."

Jack purred a seductive growl as he crossed through the doorway and onto the ramp leading to the command deck of the TARDIS. "Well hello beautiful. Did you miss me?"

"She misses all my companions when they leave," the Doctor answered shortly.

"Some more than others, though, am I right," Jack shot in with a sly grin. "Or is that just her pilot who feels that way?"

The Doctor offered an impatient and irritated look.

"I have to say, you showed up pretty quick when you thought that Rose was looking for you."

"As I would if any of my former companions call for help," the Doctor answered blandly. "And when I get a _mauve_ message, it's generally an emergency, so I respond as quickly as I can." He picked at a divot in the console with the tip of his finger. "I just happened to be doing nothing when I received the message."

"You can bullshit it all you want, Doc," Jack teased. "But I know that you're as desperate to see her as she is to see you."

The Doctor raised his eyes. Their ancient depths held the smallest glint of hope within them, but that hope was quickly overpowered by concern. "So why did you call me, Jack? I'm fairly sure it wasn't just a social call."

Jack pursed his lips and shook his head. "No. It isn't." He leaned his hip against a strut and slouched with his arms folded across his chest. "I actually have a few questions for you."

That made the Doctor slouch momentarily in annoyance. He raised his hand to give a quick point of his finger toward Jack, but dropped it as fast. "I don't wish to discuss the situation between Rose and I, if that's your intended line of questioning," he confirmed. "What happened between she and I will remain that way."

"Near as I can tell _nothing_ happened."

The Doctor looked off to one side, but said nothing.

"Seriously,' Jack began. "I'm worried about Rose, and you're the only one I know that's in any way qualified to answer the questions I have."

The Doctor shifted a look toward Jack. "Is she okay?"

"That's a question that _you_ need to answer," he began. "I need to know just what side effects of travelling with you are to be expected on a former companion."

"That's a somewhat loaded question, Jack."

"Okay then, let me be a little more specific for you: Just what kind of physiological and behavioral changes can be expected in a Human girl with prolonged exposure to the TARDIS and Time Vortex travel?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Nothing." He paused. "_Well_. There may be a temporary presence of Huon and Artron energies, but they do tend to dissipate and ultimately disappear within a week of being back on Earth. Neither of the two have proven to be detrimental to their health or wellbeing, really. Well. Not _really_, anyway."

"When you say _not really_, what do you mean?"

"I mean _not really_," the Doctor answered with a snort. "There is a very slight possibility that there may be an alien presence that could detect and try to use those energies, but those energies tend to be in such small amounts that it's not worth the effort." He scratched at his chin. "Aside from that, really, there isn't anything. TARDIS travel is safe…"

"Not with your piloting."

"Very funny," he shot back. He sighed a deep breath and thrust his hands into his trouser pockets. "Why do you ask? Is everything okay with Rose? Is she ill?"

Jack frowned and shook his head. "I wouldn't say _ill_," he replied carefully. "But she's _different_."

"In what way?" When he heard a slightly confused huff burst through Jack's nose he took a stride forward toward him. "Take me to see her."

"That's probably not a good idea, Doc. She doesn't know I've called for you."

He wasn't going to hide his disappointment. "Are you suggesting that Rose wouldn't want to see me?"

Jack shook his head. "I'm not suggesting anything of that nature." He looked to the Doctor. "In fact I would guess that if she saw you right now, right this instant, that she'd hug the life right out of you." He paused only long enough for the Doctor the breathe a sigh of relief that Jack wasn't going to take it to the gutter. "And then, when she was sure that she had reawakened the fire within the Time Lord, she'd probably drag you by the tie back to one of the rooms in this ship and screw you senseless." He grinned in wait for the groan of disgust.

He didn't get it.

"You know what, Jack. I'd probably let her," the Doctor admitted – much to Jack's absolute surprise. He pressed the butts of the palms of his hands into both eyes. "Omit the word _probably_ from that sentence, will you?"

Jack was pleasantly stunned. "Well. I don't quite know how to respond to that."

"Then don't." He inhaled a gulping breath and breathed out through an open mouth. "So tell me what's happening with Rose."


	5. What's Up, Doc?

A/N: I had three ways to move in this story … Instead of picking just one, I think I'll try to go with all three … wish me luck in pulling that off.

~~oooOOOooo~~

So what's going on with Rose Tyler, then?

Plenty.

Where to start?

Jack bit on the inside of his cheek as he considered the Doctor's question and how he could possibly outline each one of his concerns without panicking the Time Lord. And he had no doubt that the Doctor _would_ panic. Rose wasn't behaving like the Rosie that Jack had basically adopted as a sister – a rather hot one at that – so many months ago.

He must've been considering his answer for too long, because the Time Lord pressed him again with a call of his name.

Jack shook himself.

"Yeah. Okay. So our Rosie – where to begin?"

"From the start," the Doctor suggested with a shrug. He moved back to the jump seat and leaned against the leather in a half sit/half lean. "If it'll make it easier for you to get going, I can probably assure you that there are quite possibly several very valid reasons that can sate any concern you have."

Jack smirked a one-sided smile. "Yeah. We'll see about that." He caught a flash of concern pass by the Doctor's eyes and raised his hands. "Okay. Okay. Tell me what you know – and what Rose is supposed to know – about the Graelfhire."

The Doctor actually smirked. "Well. How long do you have?" He rubbed at the back of his neck and his smirk moved to a smile. "They're an ancient civilization, Jack. I spent dual decades at the academy studying their language and history."

"Right," Jack muttered. "And Rose?"

The Doctor raised his eyes to the ceiling of the console room of the TARDIS and blew a breath through pursed lips. "_Well_," he drawled with a long extension on the end of the word. "Quite a bit, actually."

"Oh?"

The Doctor leaned back further against the jump seat. "Rose got bored one day while I was overhauling the Transdimensional actuator on the old girl. She wound up in the library and found some of my old papers from the Academy. She couldn't read it, _of course_, because it was in Gallifreyan, but she was intrigued enough by the diagrams that she wanted to know more."

Jack grinned. "A-ha."

"And you know Rose."

"She no doubt shuffled into that crawlspace beside you and bugged you until you translated it for her."

The Doctor gave a tight tooth and wide grin. "She actually took notes."

Jack's expression lengthened in surprise. "Oh."

"She has a hunger for learning," the Doctor said proudly. "I've got the passion to teach…"

"You mean to _brag_ about how clever you are."

"To-may-to, to-mah-to," the Doctor countered with a smile and a sigh. "Rose always wanted to know more, and I was always happy to tell her what she needed to know." He passed a look toward Jack that warned him to keep any comments about _flighty blondes_ to himself. "She knows a great deal more and is far more intelligent than she's given credit for."

"I never suggested otherwise."

The Doctor rubbed at an eye with his index finger as he looked to the Time Rotor. "It's one of the things that made Rose and I such a great team. She was enough like me to make us work pretty flawlessly together, and different enough that she forced me to think of other options and … _well_ … accept that things were sometimes not quite what they seemed to be."

"Meaning?"

The Doctor snorted. "_You_ ended up with us, didn't you?" He thrust his hands into his trouser pockets and slouched his head down into his neck as he leaned back onto the jump seat. "She questioned me, Jack. That made me question myself. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it got us into more trouble."

"Which is probably what Rose preferred. The _trouble_ thing, I mean."

The Doctor had to laugh at that. "Yep. There were times that the _jeopardy friendly_ term I gave her was less accurate than _jeopardy hunter_." He continued to wear a broad smile. "She also stopped me from doing stupid things."

Jack gasped facetiously. "You? Do something stupid?"

"Shut up."

"So then the information she gave me on the Graugiz can be explained by your lecture to her one day under the grating of the TARDIS as you worked on the Transdimensional Actuator?" He snorted. "Really, Doc. You had a woman like Rose, confined against you in a cubby hole that can barely fit one person, let alone two, and you lectured her on alien species?"

"_Well_…"

"Do Time Lords actually _do it_, Doc? I mean are your people actually capable of getting one up and then getting it in to a prize specimen like Rosie?"

"I actually take offence on her behalf that you would consider Rose a _specimen_, and then up that offence to disgust that you would think that I could possibly take advantage of her like that."

"That didn't answer my question, Doc," Jack snorted.

"Which one _specifically_? You asked a few."

"Answer them all."

The Doctor rolled his eyes and stared up at the ceiling. "First things first. Yes. Time Lords are perfectly capable of…" he cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Anyway. I lectured Rose about the Graelfhire because she asked me to. I could hardly put aside her curiosity in learning about an alien species that had piqued that curiosity by jumping her under the grating now, could I?"

"I really don't think she would have minded one bit."

"Aside from the fact that it would be highly disrespectful to the TARDIS for me to …" He winced and rolled his wrist in Jack's direction. "To do _that_ – especially as I was in the middle of repairing a failing actuator at the time." He sniffed. "There wasn't enough room for either of us to get ourselves to a state of undress enough to even perform the … what you're suggesting."

"Well. You _thought_ about it at the very least," Jack said with a cheeky grin and a waggle in his brows. "More than once I would hope."

"More than I'll admit to, anyway." He let out a long breath and rubbed at his chin. "Now. As to her knowledge on the Graugiz. I never spoke to her about the Graelfhire Super Soldier. That all occurred when I was centuries out of the academy, so it wasn't in the papers that we were discussing." He pulled from the jump seat and flicked his hand in invitation for Jack to follow him. "But that isn't to say there isn't anything in the library about it. Come with me, we can take a look." He waited until Jack was pacing beside him. "So what did she know, exactly?"

Jack snorted what could have been interpreted as a laugh. "Yeah. Well, that's where it gets interesting."

"How so?" He pushed open the door to the library and led the pair inside the room. He looked up to the ceiling of the darkened room. "A little light if you please, my beautiful girl."

Jack briefly shielded his eyes as the lights flashed brightly above their heads and then dimmed to a more comfortable illumination. "Her knowledge was _intimate_."

"I get worried when you say that word," the Doctor chuffed uneasily as his fingertip ran along a line of book spines in search of a book that might hold the answers.

"For once that word doesn't have any sexual connotations," Jack admitted. "It actually means what I intended it to mean."

The Doctor's jaw dropped slightly as he breathed, "Ahh."

"She knew of their weakness, of their engineering, even how to properly assess the number of soldiers." He rubbed a hand down his face. "Hell, Doc. She used harmonic resonation frequencies to figure out how many we were facing."

The Doctor spun to face Jack with surprised brows arched high on his forehead. "There are several questions I have from that revelation, the most pressing one being: You were facing down Graugiz soldiers?"

Jack nodded. "Yep."

"Do you have any idea how dangerous those beings are?" He moved in on Jack with quick strides across the space between them. "Only with a very specific attack can you take them down. They are highly volatile and will not stop once they lock on target."

"I became very quickly aware of that."

He calmed his breathing to a light pant. "You're _here_, which means that you survived it." His eyes flicked up to Jack's face. "And I'm going to guess that Rose held the answer to just _how_ to get out of that mess?"

Jack nodded. "I see that you've missed the point of a human being, with no electronic means at her disposal, managed to use resonation frequencies to …"

"Hold on," the Doctor interrupted sharply. "Rose didn't use…?" He looked stunned. "That's impossible for a human." His eyes widened. "Well. It's not even all that easy to do as a Time Lord, although we can in extreme circumstances if we shut down other sensory systems to focus on…" He shot a look to Jack, and then pointed to an armchair. "Sit. Tell me _exactly_ what she did."

Jack padded slowly toward the armchair and politely waited for the Doctor to seat himself in a chair across from his to take a seat himself. He slouched heavily in the leather cushioning. "Basic tale is this. We had a Graelfhire ship crash land just outside of Dublin. Rose and I were the recon team that hopped in for a looksee."

"Without any real intelligence I'll hazard to guess."

Jack shrugged with a roll of his eyes. "Like you'd take the time to go through several briefings before you jumped in."

The Doctor merely grinned.

"Anyway," Jack continued. "We knew the ship's origin, and we also knew that the Graelfhire are a peaceful species. We didn't think it would end up with Rose and I scrambling for our lives against a squad of genetically engineered super soldiers." He rubbed at his chin. "Hell. Even once in there, we didn't know what we were up against." He looked to the Doctor. "Until Rose took a shot, got in a solid hit, and it did nothing to slow it down."

The Doctor blew out a breath but nodded for Jack to continue.

"Rose quickly let me know what we were dealing with, and then how to dispatch them."

"A pair of shots," the Doctor suggested. "One to each shoulder."

"Yes," Jack said breathlessly. "That's what she said." He winced and leaned forward in the chair. "But it's really not _that_ which concerned me, Doc. Rose is. I mean she was…"

"Tell me," he said softly.

"Intelligence. Yeah. I know she has it." He rolled his eyes and nodded his head. "Sure. She had a little more than I gave her credit for – and I won't ever doubt her again."

"Jack," the Doctor urged. "Tell me."

"The intuition," he suggested. "It's _you_, not _Rose_." He fell back again into the cushion and covered his eyes in a hand. "It's like I was alongside _you_ in there. She had intuition and a sense of everything around her – and more than just being observant. She _knew_, she could _feel_. Like. God. It was like I was alongside a …"

"Wolf?"

That word widened Jack's eyes. "Yes. Maybe," he breathed with a shake of his head. "But. No. It was more than that. Doc. If I hadn't met you, and knew that it was actually possible, I'd swear that Rose was able to feel so intently, so bloody intimately, that she'd be able to sense a gnat's fart up wind three miles away."

"How have I missed your analogies," the Doctor breathed out along a shaken breath. "Can you share an example?"

"She pulled me from a wall only a second before a Graugiz blasted through it."

"That could've been luck."

Jack shook his head. "No. She knew it was going to happen. It was like she could sense the electrical buildup around us as the Graugiz pulled the trigger." He picked at a tiny hole in the knee of his leather pants. "Then there was the resonance…"

"That," the Doctor admitted. "Definitely intrigues me."

"Yeah. You, me _and_ Torchwood."

"Oh dear."

"There's a reason I called for you, Doc. We have ears on from the moment we hop, and base heard everything."

The Doctor leaned forward in his seat to press his elbows into his knees. "Before we continue. Promise me. Swear to me that she's safe." When Jack's eyes flared and his mouth flapped open and shut a couple of times, the Doctor's expression darkened in warning. "If I think for a second that she's in any danger, I _will_ intervene regardless of what you, Torchwood, and even Rose want."

"Meaning?"

"You don't want me to elaborate. Trust me on that."

"She's safe," Jack vowed. "If I thought she wasn't, then she'd be here with me." He folded his arms across his chest. "I'd beg you to take her back."

"Begging isn't required – not to me, anyway. I'll have her back on board our TARDIS without a second thought. I want her here."

"Did you just say: _Our _TARDIS?"

"No." The Doctor frowned. "I didn't say that. TARDIS is _mine_."

"Indeed," he teased lightly. He caught the Doctor's slightly guilty smile and winked. "I think your TARDIS has claimed Rosie as hers. That makes her belong to you _both._"

"Keep going," the Doctor urged with a smile, not wanting to admit that Jack was right. "I'm guessing that it gets more intriguing."

"It does," Jack agreed. "And I was questioning coming to you about this…"

"Why?"

"Because, as a _Time_ Lord, you're either going to cream yourself with excitement, or you're going to go into panic."

"I'm not sure that I like where this is headed."

"Statement of the century," Jack muttered. "And initially I ignored this; put it down to a moment of déjà vu or madness on her part. But after her harmonic resonance brilliance, I couldn't ignore it anymore."

The Doctor swallowed. His voice was soft, concerned, worried. "Tell me."

"Doc. I think Rosie has Time Sense."

"Oh don't be preposterous," the Doctor snapped immediately. He fell back heavily into the cushion behind him with a shake of his head. "I'll admit to you that before she left me she was showing more and more sensitivity toward time, but that can easily be put down to her connection with TARDIS."

"What?"

"The two of them got along very well," the Doctor explained. "TARDIS has a soft spot for Rose ever since … _well_ … never mind. Long story. Irrelevant, really, to current topic."

"Not really," Jack argued quietly. "We are talking time sensitivity in a species that isn't supposed to have it."

"Time Sense," the Doctor began. "Is more than having an uncanny knack for being able to know the time as per a clock. It's so much more than that."

"And you think I don't know that, Doc?" He gave the Doctor a moment to sweep his gaze toward him before he continued. "Rosie. _Well_. Rose is. She." He rubbed at his head. "This is where explanations get complicated. I've done a fair bit of Time Travelling, myself. I like to think I've got a handle on some of the smaller expectancies of knowing what and where and when. But Rose…"

"Have you and Rose done any time travel since you've met up again?"

He shook his head. "No. I haven't been able to do that in over a century, myself. My Vortex Manipulator shorted out back on the Gamestation. Thank you, by the way, for just abandoning me there."

"Oh. Did I do that?"

He rolled his eyes and ignored the question. "Rose fixed it for me, just so you know." He nodded at the look of shock on the Doctor's face. "Yeah. I think I had the same expression you've got when she told me she got it working."

"So then you _have_…"

Jack laughed. "No. Of course not. Look, Doc. I love that girl more than I've ever loved anyone… But not even _I_ would try to jump with a manipulator that shorted out over a century ago just because she told me she'd fixed it." He waved his hand before the Doctor could speak. "But that doesn't matter. Not in the grand scheme of things. Rose. We're talking about Rose."

"We are. And when we're done talking about Rose, then we'll switch to the fact you may have a working manipulator that needs to be made to _not_ work."

"Anyway." He cleared his throat. "Yes. Rose can tell you the exact time down to the millisecond if you ask her to. I know Savants who can do that – almost a parlour trick, really."

"But?"

"You know how you claim to be able to, I dunno, _feel_ time around you?"

The Doctor snorted. "I don't _claim_ it, Jack. I'm a Time Lord. Feeling the movement of time around me is instinct."

"You can trace back to the millisecond events that have happened?"

"Of course I can. A loomling can do that." He suddenly chuckled. "Is Rose playing that game on you, Jack? Is she taking time to the millisecond on you?"

Jack looked slightly sheepish. "Yeah. Maybe."

The Doctor laughed a genuine cackle of amusement. "Oh, that sneaky girl. She used to try that on me all the time when she would get bored and I was working on TARDIS." His laughter stopped, but his smile remained. "I think she did it to test me; to see if I was listening to her. She'd pull out some time sequence and flutter those lashes of her at me." He tilted his head to one side and looked to Jack with a guilty expression. "And I'd fall for it time and time again – if you'll pardon the pun."

"Perhaps," Jack answered with a frown. "Yeah. You know what. Perhaps I am making more of this than it is." He stood up and brushed his hands on his thighs. "I'm sorry to have bothered you, Doc."

"Well, don't swan off too fast," the Doctor said quickly with a point to the seat. "That can't be _everything_."

"Well at the rate we're travelling here, you look to counter every concern I have with the common sense that I've failed to call on…"

"You wouldn't be Jack Harkness if you used common sense, now, would you?"

"Oh ha ha."

The Doctor smirked his trademark smile and nodded to the chair. "Is there something else?"

"Yeah," he huffed with a swipe at the back of his head as he flopped back down in his chair. "She said something completely out of the ordinary when we were facing the Graelfhire few hours ago."

"Hold on," the Doctor said with a cough. "This was all just a few hours ago?"

"I couldn't wait," he admitted. "I was concerned and needed to speak with you about it as soon as possible."

That changed things somewhat for the Doctor. He leaned forward in his chair and pressed his elbows into his knees so focus tightly on the man across from him. "Tell me, then."

"Have you ever had a moment where you have such supreme déjà vu that you _believe_ that you've been taken back seconds in time?"

The Doctor rubbed at his chin, his eyes wide as he considered how to answer this question. He needed to know more before he could answer.

"How do you mean?"

"Rose was confident one second, telling me how we could defeat the enemy, and then inside a breath she looked confused and … for lack of a better description … scared."

The Doctor pursed his lips. "I see," he said carefully. "Did she explain why?"

"She asked me if I had felt it; felt … oh I can't remember exactly what she said to me, to be honest. But if I'm to make any sense of it – if that's possible – then her words suggested a time ripple or something that took her backward in time a few seconds."

"So she repeated the last few seconds of time?"

"Something like that," he muttered. "Something along the lines of feeling a heavy feeling and being thrown back in time."

The Doctor nodded. "It's a Time Disortion, or a Time Jump I suppose. Happens randomly from time to time."

"That's a lot of _time_ in one sentence."

"Not carrying a thesaurus on me, sorry."

"So it's not unusual, then?"

"Oh," the Doctor answered quickly. "It's very unusual, indeed. I've probably experienced them only a handful of times, myself. They can be disturbing to say the least." He scratched at his sideburn. His eyes were wide and his brows were high as he let out a breath. "As a Time Lord, such disturbances are felt when certain incidences occur that can change timelines or when a fixed point has been set. But, that's to be expected of a Lord of Time. That's who we are, it's instinct." He passed a look of worry toward Jack. "But for a human to feel them? No. That's quite impossible."

"But it happens, then?"

"To Time Lords, yes it does." He leaned back in the chair. "And even then, we have to be pretty close to the incident, or change that's occurring to feel it. Proximity, or emotionally."

"By that, what do you mean?"

"As an example, when a house on Gallifrey does something particularly stupid, like loom a new cousin without consent from Council and thereby exceeding quota, then all members of that house _will_ feel the ripple." He shuddered. "I can remember quite vividly the Time Distortions that rocked TARDIS and me when Owis was loomed in my place at Lungbarrow." He cleared his throat and looked pained. "That wasn't an entirely pleasant couple of weeks for travel, I can tell you."

"So the looming of a Time Lord will cause it?"

"An unauthorized one, yes." He shrugged. "But no Gallifrey means no looms. And besides, if what you're describing to me is that Rose was sensitive to feel a Time distortion, well. She's not Lord, and she's not attached to any house, so if that was the case, she wouldn't feel it." He wiped his finger underneath his nose as he recalled his own feelings of time distorting around him. "But…"

"But, what?"

The Doctor stood quickly and began to pace. He said nothing as his hands moved into his hair and he moved between scratching and clutching fistfuls.

Jack watched the Doctor with curiosity. He was fairly used to seeing the man pace quietly when he was trying to sort out a quandary in his mind. He was used to the change in facial expressions as his mind provided several different options related to that quandary. What he wasn't used to, however, was the quickening look of panic spreading across the Time Lord's face.

"Doc? What's on your mind?"

The Doctor held up a hand to ask a moment and then stilled. His eyes closed and he tilted his head in concentration. Slowly his head rolled on his shoulders as he opened his mind to Time and Space in search of a long lost telepathic signal. Inside a moment, his eyes slowly opened and he turned to Jack.

"I think you should take me to see her," he pleaded softly. "I need to ask her for myself what's happening before I can tell you what I _think_ is going on."

"And what do you think that might be?"

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm really not sure," he admitted. "I can sense that there's _something_ that's affecting the time lines. I just don't know what, exactly, is doing that." He breathed a long breath and his voice quietened. "There's the smallest tickle of warning in the back of my mind, but the feeling is too weak for me to be able to work out what it is."

"Do you think it might be related to Rose?"

He pressed his lips tightly together and shook his head. "No. I think that she may have some sensitivities that may have held over from her time here on the TARDIS, but I don't believe that she's in any mortal peril." He quickly narrowed his eyes to amend that statement. "Well. Unless you keep dragging her into your assignments that is." He slumped. "Why, Jack? Why would you give her a gun and let her go after your _enemies_?"

"Because she hungers adventure, Doc. You know that." He tipped his head to one side and offered a rueful smile. "You know as well as I do that Rose is too good to be held down to an ordinary life and an ordinary job. You showed her who she was capable of being, and she's embracing it."

"Are you going to promise me that you'll always keep her safe?"

"I can't do that," He admitted. "But you bet your TARDIS that I'll do everything I can to try."

"That's not good enough."

Jack shook his head. "I don't know what you did, Doc. Why she left you. Rose has never opened up to make that explanation." He slouched back in the chair. "I don't know what you were thinking letting her go. I know how you feel about her. I saw how you fell apart when you thought she was gone."

"I…"

"But you let her go, Doc. You let her walk out of your TARDIS. You let her go, you picked yourself up a new companion. Hell. I don't get it. You're a Time Lord in love with the most amazing human on this planet, and you let her just walk on out of your life." His expression creased in disbelief at his friend. "It's obvious you still care about her."

"Can you take me to her?"

"I don't know, Doc."

"Please?"

Jack looked pained as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair, but didn't give in.

"I can't do this, you know," the Doctor admitted softly as he lowered his chin into his hands and let his fingertips seat themselves just underneath his eyes. "I miss her. I miss her so much."

"Do you love her?"

"Yeah," he answered with a nod. "Yeah."

"Then let me see what I can do," Jack offered. "I know your new companion suggested we all get together for dinner." He pursed his lips. "I can offer to take Rose out for something to eat. No doubt me leaving her with all the paperwork from our little trip to Dublin means I've got plenty of penance to make." He raised his eyes to the Doctor. "Will that work for you?"

"I'll take it," the Doctor answered quickly.

"Yeah. I'll get it arranged then." He smirked a smile of teasing. "Wonder how she's going to feel about the new girl in the TARDIS…"


	6. Dinner with Friends

A/N: Thanks for the comments and reviews! Once again it is the best way to push my muse into giving me more energy to write.

As I sit here right now I am torn between a couple of scenarios .. I really don't know just where this chapter will take me … Hopefully somewhere exciting.

~~oooOOOooo~~

To say that she was annoyed was a supreme understatement. As soon as they'd both made it back to Torchwood after their little jaunt in Dublin, Jack had taken off. Not only had he just taken off to leave her with all of the paperwork – which is a _rookie's_ job, apparently – but he'd also knicked her phone.

Now. She could very well imagine many different reasons as to why Jack would like to get his hands upon a bedazzled phone. Many of them were suggestive of his X being far more dominant than his Y and so he was experiencing _sparkle_ _jealousy. _Sure, she could create more and more fantastic scenarios of Captain Harkness needing to steal her phone. Perhaps he was intending on sleezing his way through the ladies on her contact lists. Maybe he wanted to see if she had any boyfriends that he could pound on … And take that in whatever way you will … but Rose Tyler was not stupid. She knew the _exact_ reason that Jack had annexed her phone and taken off into the sunset.

He was looking for a specific contact. One. _The Doctor_.

And that made her mad. It did. Well. Mad. Jealous. Sad. Longing. Curious. All of the above and more.

God, she missed that manic, egoistic mad man in a box.

But. No sense in dwelling. She left him, right? It was her decision, and she was going to stick with it.

She sniffed in a shaking breath when the familiar scent of oak, cedar, mandarin, musk and amber assaulted her senses. She'd know that smell anywhere.

"And just where have you been," she snarled under her breath as she closed the manila folder and pushed it across the desk toward him. "It would've been helpful to add in your take on things, you know."

Jack sat on the edge of the desk and leaned down to lift her chin with the crook of his finger. He looked into her eyes a moment as though analyzing her mood and then winked. "I've been doing some recon work."

"Recon?" Her brows lifted suspiciously.

"Yeah," he drawled as he leaned his hand down on the desk and let his fingers brush along the folder. "Something's caught my intrigue and I had to do a little research."

"Would _something_ be in any way related to a little bit of booty in need of a bit of calling?"

Jack laughed a pair of huffs. "Oh Rosie. _Booties_ aren't the only things that intrigue me."

"Oh?" Rose leaned her elbows on the table and cupped her chin in her hands as she widened her eyes and smiled in the most horrifically innocent expression. Even her voice matched her façade. "Then what took your fancy, and just _where _did you have to go to do your study? The library?" She looked at him with a put on pout. "And you didn't bring me back anything to read?"

Jack cleared his throat. Oh. He knew that tone of voice. He'd been sprung.

"Right." He cleared his throat. "I. I kind of met up with an old friend of ours."

"Mmmhmmm," she hummed as she fluttered her lashes. "And this _old _friend of ours. By _old. _do you mean in age? I mean _w_ould he happen to be in his 9th century, by chance?"

Jack snorted a laugh that was devoid of any guilt. "Can't hide anything from you, can I?"

"Not when you steal my phone to try and find him," she offered with a shake of her head and a decent roll of her eyes. She held out her hand in request for her phone. "Really, Jack. Did you think I wouldn't notice that my super sparkly was missing from my desk? Did you also not consider that I'd clue in when I find the signal using the GPS locator program here at Torchwood, and find that it happens to be in the middle of a sudden Artron energy field." She tapped at her teeth. "Just what has such a distinctive energy signature, then?"

Jack leaned forward to drop her phone into her waiting hand and press a light kiss to the very tip of her nose. "You should take up professional stalking, Rosie. You'd be very good at it."

"Isn't that what we do?"

"That it is, Rosie. That it is."

Rose licked at her lip and tipped her ear to her shoulder. "So how is he, then?"

Jack rubbed his hands on his thighs. "Ahh. Same old Doc." He paused. "No. Wipe that. Not quite the same as when I saw him last." He waggled his brows. "You didn't tell me that he was so devilishly handsome in this regeneration."

She hooked her hair behind her ear and shrugged innocently. "Really? I hadn't noticed."

He leaned down to her. "No? Well. Then _I did_ for the both of us." He blew out an impressed breath. "He misses you, you know."

"Ahh," she breathed as she rose up from her chair and walked around the table to sit beside Jack. "I doubt that." I'm sure he has himself a pretty new companion and is travelling and saving the universe one TARDIS ride at a time."

"You underestimate how he feels for you," Jack offered as he threaded his arm across her shoulder.

"Has he got a new companion?"

Jack nodded slowly. "Yeah. Her name's Nancy."

"Of course," she breathed with heavy disappointment and unshielded jealousy. "Of course he does. I wonder how long it took him to find someone else to hold his hand."

He nudged her with his shoulder. "Now now, Rosie. Jealousy is very unbecoming, you know."

"I'm not jealous."

He laughed a breathy open mouthed laugh. "Oh yes you are. You are the single most jealous woman I know – especially when it comes to the Doctor."

She slouched in a very childish manner. "Yeah, well…."

"I wouldn't see this one as any form of competition," Jack suggested gently as he tightened his hold on her shoulder. "She's nothing on you."

"It doesn't matter anyway," she said with a sigh and a slouch. "We're on different paths now. I hope that you at least said hi from me."

"I grabbed that handsome and freckled face of his and laid a big sloppy smooch on him from you." His brows shot up at her laugh. "What? You think I'm joking?"

She shook her head. "No, and that's what's so amusing. I can just see the look of absolute horror on his face when you did that."

Jack gave a laugh of victory. "That's where you're wrong, Rosie my girl. As soon as the Doc learned it was a kiss from you, he got right into it. Tongue and all." He winked. "Told me to take notes and make sure that I returned that kiss exactly as he gave it." He pursed his lips to sucked a couple of kisses in the air toward her. "So pucker up, I have a message to pass along to you from Gallifrey."

She slapped his shoulder with a laugh. "No thank you." She winked. "I don't know where that mouth of yours has been."

"I told you – on a Time Lord."

Rose shook her head and stood up from the desk. She moaned as she stretched tall. "So. I'm hungry. Feel like taking a pretty girl out for some food – you know, considering you treated her like your personal secretary…"

"If you were my secretary…"

She put her hand over his mouth. "Don't say it. Please. Don't say it."

He chuckled against her hand, and then stuck out his tongue to drag it along her palm. As expected she squealed in disgust and pulled it away from him. "You're revolting," she accused with a groan as she stuck out her tongue in repulsion and wiped her hand on his shirt. "That means you also _paying _for dinner."

"Actually," Jack said in very carefully measured tones. "The Doc's paying for dinner."

Rose's amused expression fell to guarded. "I don't think that man's ever actually _paid _for dinner before." She twisted her head to pass a very cut-eyed, sideways glare to Jack. "What did you do, Jack?"

"Nothing."

"No. _What_ did you _do_?"

"I might have suggested to the Doc that it might be good to catch up over dinner and drinks."

She whimpered into her hand. "Oh God."

Jack leaned to her ear and chuckled. "Play your cards right, Rosie, and you just might find yourself saying…" He yelped as she pinched a solid grip on his arm and twisted it.

~~oooOOOooo~~

Nancy and the Doctor walked arm in arm toward the restaurant that Nancy had made reservations for. Well, that is to say that the Doctor walked with his hands deeply seated inside his trouser pockets, while Nancy had her arm threaded around his crooked elbow.

She had been very intrigued by Jack Harkness. What a fine specimen of manhood he was. She had considered the Doctor to be a very handsome and captivating, but Jack? Well, he was quite fascinating.

She was slightly disappointed, however, to find that Jack would be bringing a plus one to their dinner. Of course a man such as he would be taken…

She flicked her eyes to the handsome man walking at her side.

…Then again, so should he.

He was a walking enigma, that's for sure; one that she would eventually break. Every man had a breaking point where they would finally succumb to the wily ways of a pretty girl. She would find it.

"So where are we heading to, Nancy," the Doctor said with a clearing of his throat that seemed as much to distract her of her thoughts as to express his discomfort in not knowing their destination.

"The House of Lords," she answered with a giggle into her hand. "I thought it appropriate."

He dropped his head and thumbed at his nose. "It sounds like an interesting locale," he muttered.

She shrugged. "It's a pleasant little hole in the wall, and one that should give us plenty privacy and relative quiet for our little double date."

He looked at her with suspicious and uncomfortable eyes as he noticed her shift closer against him when she said the word _date_. He pulled at his ear. "This isn't a _date_," he corrected. "It's just dinner with some friends that I haven't seen in a while." He patted at her hand, which she had sitting on his upper arm. "I'm sure you'll enjoy their company. Jack, _well_. You've met Jack. Sort of. You've met him from a visual standpoint – obviously – but to say you've _met _the _real_ Jack Harkness would be somewhat inaccurate. He's definitely an _interesting_ sort of person."

"And he's bringing his _girlfriend_?"

That made the Doctor laugh. "Jack doesn't have girlfriends," he answered quickly. "He's not the type to take himself just one lover."

"Well I hope that _she_ knows that."

The Doctor swallowed and pulled again at his ear. "Rose isn't one of his conquests."

Her hold upon the Doctor's arm tightened. "Rose? As in the Rose who broke your heart?"

He was silent for a moment, and his stride slowed somewhat. After he took a moment to clear his throat against his fist, he sped up his walk. "Rose is a dear, dear friend of mine. She couldn't possibly – at least not deliberately – break anyone's heart."

"So just _friends_, then?"

He nodded quickly. "She's very special to me, Nancy. Someone who I hold in both of my hearts. But. But, we never crossed the line from friends to lovers."

"Did you want to, though?"

He looked up quickly as the sign indicating their destination shone overhead. "Oh look," he deflected swiftly. "We're here. Is the reservation under your name?"

Nancy shook her head and extracted her arm from his as the Doctor paused to check his reflection in the window. "Yeah. I'll just let them know we're here. Did you want to stop to look at yourself for a little while longer while I introduce us?"

He actually nodded and stood face on to the window as he straightened his tie. "That would be lovely. Thank you."

Nancy moaned and put her hands on his shoulders to draw him around to face her. She shook her head as she straightened his tie and tightened the knot lightly into the collar of his Oxford. "You look fine, Doctor." The side of her mouth crinkled thoughtfully. "Although I'd rethink your hairstyle, maybe lose the sideburns." She looked at his not-quite-pressed suit. "Perhaps update the wardrobe a little. But you'll do, I suppose."

"What," he gasped as he looked down at himself, and then shot a look at his reflection. "What's wrong with this?"

"The list is long," she sighed. "Now come on." She tugged on his elbow. It was at that moment that she noticed the Doctor had gone deathly still in her hold. His eyes looked into the darkness just beyond the soft glow of the streetlight above their head, and he looked for a moment like he was ready to run.

"Doctor?"

His voice was a soft whisper. "By Rassilon…"

Nancy squinted to see through the darkness up the street, but saw nothing of note. She heard a burst of feminine laughter, though, which seemed to clear her vision to a pair walking arm-in-arm along the footpath.

"And then, when I thought I was going to have my head separated from my body by a razor whip wielded by a leather wearing Gharonite guard, in comes the Gharonite queen, naked, screeching a language that could put nails on a chalkboard to shame."

"Oh Hell, Jack!"

"That's what I think _she_ was yelling!" He boomed a laugh that rivalled the laughter of Rose Tyler. "Oh you should've been there, Rosie. They didn't need the razor whip, I think the Queen's voice was enough to drop me where I stood." He beamed a smile to the silent pair at the front entrance of the restaurant. "Doc! Nancy. Glad you two could make it."

The Doc wasn't completely aware that he was holding his breath. It was about the same time as his repiratory bypass kicked in that he figured he should inhale. He let his eyes obtain a sharp missile-lock on the laughing blonde woman pressed against Jack's side and breathed out her name.

Rose's smile faltered only momentarily as her name ghosted by her, but it quickly returned in a bright and brilliant smile. "Doctor."

Her voice, her perfect lips, and that delicious tongue rolling out his name made the Doctor break out into a brilliant smile. He quickly launched from his stand, unceremoniously dropping Nancy's hold on his arm, and hummed a happy noise in the back of his throat as he stepped forward, stooped just slightly, and hauled Rose up in his arms with enough force to lift her feet off the ground.

Rose squeaked her own noise of thrill as she circled her arms around his neck and bent her knees to let her legs swing side to side.

"It's so good to see you," she squeaked with a press of her lips against his cheek. "It's been so long," she breathed. "Too long since I've seen you."

"How long has it been for you," he breathed against her ear.

"Seven months, one week, four days, seven hours, fourty four minutes and seventeen seconds," she answered without hesitation.

Rose didn't notice that the Doctor provided the exact same time frame at the same time that she'd spoken it, but Nancy and Jack did. They looked to each other with curiously raised brows, but opted not to say anything about it.

"How about you," she asked the Doctor as he set her feet back on the ground and released her waist only to grab at her hand. "How long?"

"Same," he responded with a smile. "I've been living linear to you for some reason." He tugged at his ear. "Probably the TARDIS' doing. She's been getting a little sneaky with me these past few months."

"I'm glad to see she's still keeping you on your toes then," Rose remarked with a wink.

"Always," he muttered with a moan and a backward throw of his head. "Why is it that the most important women in my life have to continually challenge me like that?"

"Because," Jack chirped with a firm slap on the Doctor's shoulder to get him to move toward the restaurant entrance. "They wouldn't be so important if they didn't, would they?"

"Very true," he admitted. "Living isn't living if you aren't getting frustrated by a beautiful woman be it a sentient machine or a Human."

Rose leaned forward to regard Nancy from across the Doctor's chest. She analytically raked her eyes up and down the pretty brunette. "So if you want _in_ with Time Boy here, that's your ticket."

Nancy licked at her lip and gave Rose the very same raking and analytical look. "Oh. I'm already very much _in_ with the Doctor, thank you." She hooked her arm around his and smiled in challenge. "After all, we live together."

"Been there, done that," Rose muttered with a tightening hold on his hand. "Got the T-Shirt."

"Hmmm," Nancy hummed. "Yes, but that was last year's style. I'm wearing the current season's version."

Jack snorted and took a step back to laugh behind the trio as the Doctor raised his head to the heavens to see if he could determine which of the Gods was having a laugh at his expense that day. He was relieved, then, when the host very quickly led the foursome to their table, and the topic of conversation abruptly ceased.

There was an uncomfortable few minutes of silence at the table, where the menu was perused, drinks were ordered, and idle chatter fell by the wayside. Chatter only resumed when Rose's Torchwood phone buzzed in her jacket pocket and she took it out to read the message.

"It would seem, _Captain Jack_," she began with a snort. "That the powers that be aren't entirely impressed that you didn't submit a report on our dance with the Graelfhire." She handed him the phone. "Feel free to respond on your behalf."

Nancy nipped at the rim of her glass of wine. "You were at a _dance_, Rose? That sounds very lovely. Graelfhire, is that gaelic?"

"Off world," the Doctor answered. "From a planet about two solar systems over from this galaxy. And I don't believe that Jack and Rose were dancing as much as they were running for their lives."

"Quite," Rose answered with a cheeky grin. "Shame you missed it, Doctor. The Graugiz are truly remarkable creatures."

He was immediately intrigued, and leaned forward with his chin propped in his hand. "Oh?"

"They are dual headed, if you can believe that," she remarked. "Which goes against the information that the Graelfhire high Command released in their reports to the Shadow Proclamation."

"Really," he breathed with wide eyes. "So do you think they may be a sub-sect of the original mutation?"

"You mean a more evolved form of the original genetic manipulation?" She pursed her lips. "I never considered that." She looked over to Jack, who was obviously in the midst of composing an essay to the Torchwood heads. "Put in there that further investigation into the origin of the Graugiz may be required."

"I can help with that if you like," the Doctor offered with a tug of his ear. "I'm sure that TARDIS will be eager to help out, and … well … maybe reconnect with you a little." He leaned across the table to place his hand over hers. "She misses you, you know."

Rose tucked her hair behind her ear in a nervous gesture. "And what about her pilot?"

"Oh," he breathed with a nervous smile. "I've missed you too." His nervous smile shifted to a grin of urging. "Perhaps. Perhaps we can take a quick trip to Graelfhire and speak to the scientists directly. What do you say? One last trip with the old team?"

Her smile faltered somewhat. "Oh. I don't know if that's …" She let her eyes flick up to his. "Perhaps you and Nancy could take the TARDIS and do some investigation on our behalf?" She thumbed to Jack, who had his tongue seated in the side of his mouth as he continued to try to type on a touchscreen keyboard. "Jack and I still have some cleanup to do down here. Containment and the such. But I can send to TARDIS the information we have and you can take it from there if you like." Her smile didn't completely reach her eyes, but it was genuine. "That's your specialty, right? You can speak their language, and know their culture much better than us." She chuckled and flicked her eyes to Nancy. "And who knows. Perhaps without Jack and me there to create strife you might not end up in a jail cell."

Jack snorted at the suggestion. "Half the time it was _his_ fault." He narrowed a look at the Doctor. "I was beginning to think you had a fetish, you know."

There was no amusement on the face of the Doctor. In fact his expression was very neutral. His hand was still atop Rose's from across the table, and he lightly traced his thumb across her knuckles. "So you _don't _want to come back to the TARDIS?"

Rose grinned. "Oh. I will to say hello to the old girl, of course."

"But you don't want to travel with me again?"

She slid her hand out from underneath his and settled it around her beer bottle. "Let's not do this," she begged quietly. "And not in front of your new companion, yeah?"

He took her hand again, this time wrapping his fingers around hers. "But at some point, you are going to make yourself available so we can talk about … what happened to drive you away?"

"I think…" She gasped her words, and rocked forward limply in her chair as she felt the atmosphere around her tighten against her chest to restrict her breathing. She tightened her hold on the Doctor's hand as she felt her heart hammer heavily against her chest. She rocked forward with the pressure inside her chest, but quickly sat back at the air cleared and Rose was able to inhale a deep and cleansing breath.

"So you _don't_ want to come back to the TARDIS?"

Rose blinked and shuddered at the repeat to the Doctor's question. "Doctor?"

The tight grip of her hand on his, and the worried way in which she said his name, and the Doctor moved up and out of his chair. He knelt on a knee in front of her and touched at her cheek and winced at the heat of her skin against his touch. "Rose, are you alright?"

"Did you feel that Doctor," she asked in panic. "Please. Please tell me you felt that and that I'm not losing my mind."

"You're not," he assured her softly as he reached into the inner pocket of his blazer and pulled out his Sonic screwdriver. He activated the scan and watched the blue light intently. "It was a Time distortion," he advised her softly as he looked at the reading from his sonic. "There's a disturbance in the time lines somewhere, and _well_, those of us who are time sensitive are going to feel it."

She gulped.

"I mean, I'm a Time Lord," he continued. "So I'm definitely going to feel something if we have something affecting timelines." His eyes moved to hers. "You, however, well that is a bit of a quandary. You're Human, you shouldn't feel it like I do." He moved the sonic to begin a scan of the woman to his front.

Rose quickly slapped it away. "Get that thing away from me, Doctor," she growled. "You know I don't like it when you try to scan me. Probably fry my brain or something."

"I'll have you know that it's very safe," he admonished indignantly. "This is a very precise scientific tool that is designed for scanning – safely – right down to a molecular level…"

"Precisely my point," she countered as she slapped it away from her yet again. "I'll break it, Doctor. I promise I will."

"Then come back to the TARDIS and let her look you over."

She slumped and raised her head to the ceiling. "Why would I need to…?" She dropped her chin back down to look at him. "No. Just. No. I'm fine, okay?"

He glanced down to look at the miniscule scan results his sonic managed to get for him and then looked up to stare at her for a solid minute before he rose to his feet and moved back around to his seat at the table. He passed a quick look toward Nancy as she put her hand on his arm to ask if everything was fine. "Yes, Nancy," he replied shortly with a rather condescending pat of his hand on hers. "Everything is _fine_."

"You know," Nancy retorted in a teasing tone. "The word _fine_ is the property of _women_."

His focus shifted completely from Rose, and he passed a look of puzzlement toward his companion. "Excuse me?"

"She means the answer of _fine_ to a question of how you're feeling and if anything's okay," Jack answered distractedly, still focusing on his essay. "Apparently it is the sole property of women across this fine planet."

"I see."

"I believe they own that too."

The Doctor let out a snort. He pressed his lips together into a tight line and pressed his hands into the table to push himself to a stand. "If you'll excuse me, Ladies," he began with a look toward Jack. "Are you done?"

Jack looked up from the phone, his tongue still touched to the corner of his mouth. "Nearly, why?"

"I need to visit the rest room."

Jack sniffed in amusement. "Then off you go. You don't need my permission to shake out the snake."

"Lovely, Jack," Rose chided as she leaned over his arm to look at the phone screen. "Did you really kiss your mother with that mouth?"

He raised his face and quickly snatched a kiss from her mouth. Only a small peck, but one that seemed to draw a growl from the Time Lord. He ignored it and took hold of Rose's chin between the crook of his finger and his thumb. "Used to, but she's not around yet, so now I kiss _you_ with this mouth." He chuckled. "Perks of being my _secretary_."

Rose wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand. "Oh no, that wasn't part of my employment contract."

"No? I'm pretty sure it's in the fine print." He winked as he pressed send to fire off his own brand of _charming_ response to the Torchwood Director and put the phone back onto the table. "You might want to check in with HR tomorrow and get a copy of it."

The Doctor cleared his throat in annoyance. "Jack. If you wouldn't mind."

Jack looked up with a frown of equal annoyance. "What?"

He tipped his head in the direction of the washrooms. "If you wouldn't mind."

"What? You need me to hold it for you?" He grinned suddenly and jumped up. "Excuse me, ladies. It appears as though the Time Lord needs some assistance in lifting something rather heavy."

Rose groaned as though in pain. "Jack. Please. Don't make comments like that that will only make his ego bigger."

Jack grinned and pressed a kiss into her hair. "Ahhh. So that's the secret you're not telling me. He's named it _Ego_." He whooped. "Don't' get started without me, Doc."

She threw a bread roll at him as he followed the Doctor toward the Mens. She looked at Nancy with a shrug. "I'm guessing that when you decided to reserve a table at this place, you weren't fully briefed on the behavior of one Jack Harkness."

Jack caught up with the Doctor at the entrance to the men's washroom. His joviality quickly fell to concern as he followed in behind the Time Lord.

"So. I'm going to assume that you didn't invite me into the men's to have my wicked way with you?"

The Doctor spun on Jack at the sink and huffed a growl into his face. "Just how long have you been noticing these changes in Rose?"

Jack backed up only slightly, and short an apologetic look toward another man currently standing at a urinal stall off to the side. He then looked back to the Time Lord. "Little bits here and there, Doc. But not until today did the changes start to add up to something that actually concerns me."

The Doctor spun and covered his mouth in his hand as he looked at his reflection in the mirror over the sink. "Date it back, Jack. Tell me when you first noticed something awry."

"Why, Doc?" he asked with definite worry. "What's going on? What did the Sonic tell you."

"How long," he repeated, dropping both hands down onto the countertop in a lean. He kept his eyes on his reflection. "How long?"

"Since I found her, really," He suggested. "Nearly four months ago."

The Doctor dropped his head and let out a breath. "So three months after she left me." He shook his head. "It's impossible that her levels should still be this high."

"What do you mean?"

"She's overflowing with Huon and Artron energies. Her levels would be expected of her if she was still in the TARDIS." He shifted his head to look across at the former Time Agent. "I've never seen the levels remain so high so long after leaving the TARDIS."

Jack rubbed at his jaw. "Could the sonic be reading off you?"

The Doctor winced at the suggestion, but he shrugged. "It shouldn't, but it isn't an impossibility." He turned in place to rest his hip against the counter. "I need to have the TARDIS do a proper evaluation to be sure."

"Ah. Yes. Okay." Jack walked toward the now-vacant urinal and looked over his shoulder as he undid his zip and positioned himself. "Good luck with that. We both know just how much Rose enjoys a full body scan by the TARDIS."

The Doctor huffed and moved to a urinal beside Jack. "You make it sound as though it's an invasive scan." He made the typical movements of a man readying to relieve himself. "I just need her in the med bay for a few minutes, and …" He noticed Jack leaning over the stall. "Do you mind? Doesn't you taking a look violate some unwritten code of using a public washroom?"

Jack remained in his lean, but raised his eyes to the Doctor. "Can't help my curiosity, Doc. I didn't know that Time Lords even engaged in unevolved practices such as taking a leak."

"Of course we do," he snapped. "What goes in does eventually have to come out." He rolled his eyes and tried not to feel under scrutiny. "Did you think we exorcised body waste by osmosis?"

"Didn't really consider it," he offered with a glance downward.

"Oh for the love of Rassilon," the Doctor growled. He forcibly dropped his boxer briefs and stood in a very annoyed presentation. "Curiosity sated now, Jack. Am I allowed to actually relieve the pressure on my bladder now?"

Jack hummed with a smile as he straightened himself up and looked at the wall ahead of him. "Yep."

"You are absolutely incorrigible, you know that, right?" He pressed a hand into the wall in front of him and did what was required. "So. How do I convince Rose to come back to the TARDIS?"

"Easy," he answered with a downward glance at himself as he shuddered and completed his task. "Just ask her. And not as a Time Lord wanting to study his subject, but as a man who loves a woman."

"That didn't work to stop her leaving."

"Yeah. Whatever you did must've been pretty sensational, Doc." He zipped himself up and wandered to the sink to wash his hands. "I thought she was yours for life."

"So did I."

The door burst open with a loud clang that startled both men. Jack actually let up a laugh. "Oh. Rosie. Ladies is the other door. You're in the men's."

"I know," she panted sharply. "Jack. We've gotto go."

He calmly wiped his hands on a paper towel, and spared a glance to the reddening Time Lord who was trying to save his dignity by doing himself back up. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

She held up her phone. "We got orders from Torchwood. Immediate deployment."

"Ooh. Sounds juicy." He waggled his brows. "Of course it is if you had to interrupt male bonding in side by side urinals."

"Do you ever stop," the Doctor grunted as he washed his hands in the basin beside Jack. He then looked to Rose. "So? Fun and games afoot. What do we have on our plate, then?"

Her eyes widened, and then fell into a friendly squint. "Oh. No. You don't have to tag along, Doctor. Enjoy your evening with Nancy. I think she deserves a nice dinner in a pretty restaurant." She quickly kissed his cheek. "We have this in hand. It's just basic clean up more than anything." She grabbed at Jack's shoulder. "Come on. Let's go."

"Rose," the Doctor pressed eagerly as the trio left the washroom and stood in the small corridor that lead to the main restaurant. "Come on. Don't shut me out. Let me help." He grinned. "Just like old times, you, me and Captain Jack."

"It might be a little fun," Jack offered with a smirk. "Been a while."

"And what about Nancy," Rose asked with a pointed look to the Doctor. "Are you just going to leave her behind so you can go play hero?"

"She can come along."

Rose gave a laugh. "Yeah. I can see her wanting to do that. She's way to girlie girl to want to get down and dirty, right?"

He opened his mouth to argue, but shut it very quickly. Okay. He'd forgotten about the _princess_ waiting for them in the restaurant. "I guess you're right…"

Rose slid her arms around his neck and rolled onto her toes to look into his eyes. "Never leave your companion, Doctor."

"I'm sorry, Rose."

"I know you are," she pressed her mouth to his in a gentle and affectionate kiss. She nuzzled at his nose before pulling back from him completely. "I still love you, Doctor. I always will."

His eyes locked on hers. He held an expression of absolute surprise and worry in his expression. "Rose?"

"Look after yourself, and think of me every once in a while." She hooked her arm through Jack's. "And look after your new companion, okay? She seems. Oh. A little fragile for the life you lead."

"Rose, wait."

She blew him a kiss as she punched the face of a hopper and both Jack and Rose disappeared in front of him. The Doctor's expression immediately darkened. "Oh no you don't."

~~oooOOOooo~~

Jack stumbled out of the transportation field with far less grace than his female companion. He actually staggered enough to one side that he stumbled against the lockers. "Holy shit, Rose. Are you sure you know how to use that thing?"

"I got us here, didn't I?"

He rolled his eyes with a groan. "You sound like _him_."

Rose laughed and opened her locker to pull out her field uniform.

"And speaking of," he queried as he opened his own locker to retrieve his field uniform. "What was it you said to the Doc before we left?"

"Hmmm?"

"You said something to him before we zapped out of there."

Rose curled around her locker door and looked at him with a frown. "What. You don't speak English?"

"I do, and you didn't."

"Don't be so daft." She went back to her locker. "Or is saying _I love you_ so foreign to you that it doesn't register as English?"

"Yeah," he drawled with a look toward to locker door that shielded Rose from him. "That _must_ be it."


	7. Doctor vs the TARDIS

A/N: Stupid ass busy week … I only had an hour.. So it's a short one …

I'm also running a rather impressive fever – thank you to the walking petri dish that is my child – so if it doesn't make any sense…. Sorry…

~~oooOOOooo~~

The TARDIS console hummed a soft aquamarine glow as she welcomed back on board her Thief and his companion. She was faking her cheer, the Doctor knew that well enough. TARDIS knew quite well – and long before he slipped his key into the lock – that he was not very happy with her at all.

Not. At. All.

And he made his displeasure known at the very moment he burst through the doors and pointed a finger at the Time Rotor Column. "You," he snapped. "Have been a very bad girl."

Nancy entered behind him with a pant as she held her hand against a coral strut to support herself. She wasn't used to the running, and the Doctor had sprinted from the restaurant back to his Ship. He nearly even forgot her there that was the level of hurry he was in. It was only because she called his name as he darted by her that he paused long enough for her to get up out of her chair. He had taken her hand and dragged her from the restaurant, only letting go when they were back on the street and he complained that she simply wasn't fast enough.

_"__Meet you at the TARDIS_" he'd called out to her as he sped off again on foot. "_And hurry."_

One ruined pair of heels later, which she was going to insist that the Doctor replace as quickly as humanly – or Time Lordly – possible, and she made it back to the blue ship. Right in time to see the Doctor yelling quite spectacularly at it.

"Just what were you thinking," he growled as he pulled the monitor from his left side to his front. "I'm beyond disapproving your behaviour. Way beyond that."

Nancy let a brow rise high on her head and carefully strode her panting body a few strides closer to him. "Everything okay, Doctor?"

"No," he snapped in frustration. "It's nowhere near okay. It's several solar systems beyond okay."

She nodded with pursed lips and wide eyes as she slouched against another of the Coral struts that seemed to be burning a little warmer than was usual.

"And don't you get all pissy with me," the Doctor grunted to theship as he practically punched at the keyboard. "I wasn't the one who … who …" He grunted and rubbed at his eyes with his fingers. "How _could_ you?"

Nancy swallowed a gulp and moved to the console to take a stand at his side. She braced her hands against the console's edge. "Doctor? What's wrong?"

"My ship," he snarled, "is very lucky that she's the last of her kind and to murder her would be genocide. Because if she wasn't…" The lighted console flashed an angry orange, and the Doctor had to snap his hands away fast. He blew against his fingertips and shook them ahead of his as though burning. "Yeah. Quite right," he purred darkly. "You want to play _that_ game, do you Old Girl?"

"Doctor," Nancy huffed. "Do you want to tell me what's going on?"

He blew out a breath, his glare still on the Rotor column. "Not particularly," he answered quietly with a voice laced with pure seething fury. "This's between me and TARDIS."

"Rude," she chuffed with a roll of her eyes.

"Rude is you continuing to press the issue." He snapped at her before he pointed at the Rotor column to redirect his attention to the TARDIS. "You and me. Oh, you and me. We are going to have words." He moved back to the keyboard. "Later. Much later." His eyes shifted down, and then back up. "Right now you can make penance for your crime by helping me to find them."

"Find _who_," Nancy queried as though the Doctor's words were directed at her. "Who do you need to find?"

He didn't look at her. His eyes remained on the monitor to his front. "Jack and Rose," he answered breathlessly. "They were recalled by Torchwood, oh, fifteen minutes, thirty three seconds ago."

"Okay," Nancy breathed rather nonchalantly. "That's their _job_ isn't it? Torchwood?"

The Doctor didn't answer. He continued to type on the keyboard and look to the information scrolling in Circular Gallifreyan on the monitor.

"Isn't it," she pressed again.

"Yes."

Not quite a distracted answer; it was more aggressive and annoyed than distracted by the monitor. Nancy's eyes flared. "No need to get your piss on with me, Time Boy."

His head moved so slowly to look toward her that it was reminiscent of a toy doll in a horror movie. "Right now might be a very good moment for you to back off," he warned on a dark voice. He waved his hand at her dismissively as he turned back to the monitor. "Go and – oh I don't know – wash your hair or paint your nails or something."

She folded her arms across her chest and gave him a practically judgmental grazing of her eyes up and down his pinstriped body. "So this is how you're going to be then? You turning into an arsehole because your friends are out doing their job?"

"Oh yes," he affirmed with a dark voice. "It is. Rose is out there being thrown into something that Torchwood probably haven't taken longer than a second to investigate. She and Jack have no idea what they're about to head into and if they'll even make it out in one piece."

"Again," she answered indignantly. "That is their _job_."

He spun on her, a finger held up to her nose in warning. His hardening breaths indicated that there was plenty on his mind that he was ready to growl out in a probably very threatening manner, but he was thinking very carefully about just which line he was actually going to spit out.

She swiped his finger from in front of her face. "Both of them signed up for this job, and they both know what it entails." She looked him up and down with disgust. "And you getting yourself all worked up and turning into a right wanker …" She paused in her words, noting the way he gripped hard at the edge of the console. "No. It's more than that, isn't it?"

"If I'm such a _wanker_," he growled. "Then feel free to leave _my ship._" He walked a seething gait around the console and dragged the monitor along with him. "I'm not holding you here against your will. You're very free to leave."

She folded her arms across her chest and snorted derisively. "Something tells me that you being left alone would be very dangerous to the universe."

"I've been alone much more than I've had _guests_," he corrected as he analysed another page of information from TARDIS. A growl rumbled from deep within his chest. "Oh, you are a bad girl," he snarled. "A very very _very_ bad and immoral girl."

"I will hope that you're not talking to me," Nancy muttered. "Actually, no. I hope you are, because only a crazy man talks to an inanimate object such as a space ship."

His eyes lifted so that he looked through the fine hair of his eyebrows at her. "I prefer the term _mad man_." He walked back to the keyboard and once again dragged the monitor along with him. "And the door is thattaway," he advised with a snap of his finger to the white exit doors of the ship. He wasn't incredibly surprised to see that the TARDIS felt the need to make her exit easier by opening the left, and then the right doors. "I have a job to do," he said on a low voice. "And over the past several months I haven't been able to do it. Now either leave or shut up and let me do _my_ job."

"And what is _your_ job, then?"

The Doctor ignored her question and slapped both hands on the console as the readings denied him the information he was looking for. "Damn you, TARDIS. You know her signature well enough – You certainly seem know it better than you know mine. Don't you tell me that you can't find her!"

"Why is it so important to you," Nancy queried quietly. "Why don't you trust them … _her_?"

"That's none of you concern," he answered with a sniff. He went back to the keyboard. "Come on, Old Girl. Make it up to me and try a little harder. Let's bring her home. Safe."

Nancy snorted a laugh. "Oh. I get it."

The Doctor drummed his fingers on the console in an attempt to look like he was ignoring her. "We can put our minds together, TARDIS. Just drop the shields you're putting up."

"Pretend to ignore me all you want," Nancy said with a sigh. "I know what's going on."

"We're a team, you beautiful girl," he urged. "Come on. I'll stop being mad if you start to behave."

"She's not just an ex-companion. Not just your friend."

The Doctor looked warily out of the side of his eye as Nancy made her approach. "Any time now. I'd appreciate it."

Nancy stood close enough to him that her breasts were pressed against his arm. She lowered a scrutinizing gaze into his sideburn. "You're in love with her."

He shifted sharply to one side in escape, but kept his eyes on the monitor. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"And even if I did, it wouldn't be any of my business," she charged facetiously. She folded her arms across her chest and licked at her lip. "Don't do the dating thing my arse."

He cleared his throat in absolute discomfort, but his voice was devoid of hostility. "Please drop it."

"No. I don't think I will." Another lick at her lip. "The abstinent Time Lord who frowns on intra TARDIS couplings…."

He gasped suddenly with such a deep breath that it stopped Nancy's words flat.

"Oh Yes!" He pulled the monitor toward him, leaned forward, and kissed it with a loud "Mwahh."

Nancy curled a lip and winced in embarrassment for the Time Lord. "Really?"

"Oh you beautiful girl," he cheered as the monitor lit up with a message from Earth with an intricate set of Time Coordinates. "Oh! You smart, beautiful girl."

"Who are you talking to, TARDIS?"

The Doctor grinned and bounced around the console to input some coordinate commands. "Rose Tyler," He sang with thrill. "I knew you wouldn't let me down." He petted the Rotor affectionately. "Let's go see what mischief she and Jack have found themselves in, shall we?" He tapped at his lip. "Let's drop in, oh, five, ten minutes before the time data she sent?"

The TARDIS engines purred in response.

"Yes, I agree, Old Friend." He changed his flight details. "Scan the ship before you materialize and we can set down in a quiet area and come in quietly." He grinned. "Ahhh, the stealth attack. How long has it been?"

"So," Nancy said with a clear of her throat. "What're we doing?"

"Well, TARDIS and I are going to set ourselves on board a Kraddaw ship." He pursed his lips. "A fairly unfriendly lot, the Kraddaws. They get rather tetchy in the presence of Kasterborean species. Probably jealousy that the Time Lords and the Borrav's righteously ended their plans for domination over the constellation." He shrugged. "Good intelligence, though. Can pretty much make anything out of nothing and make it brilliant…"

"So. Dangerous, then?"

He grinned a manic smile. "They can be." He then winked. "But I know how to deal with them. Arrogance versus arrogance? Time Lord will win every time."

"Ahhh."

"You're welcome to stay," he offered with a point at the door. "You could very well break a nail if you come with me."

"You condescending arse."

"Your choice." His hand hovered over the dematerialization lever. "Because I'm going."

Nancy huffed. "Then I guess I'm going too."

"Yeah," he breathed with a long extension to the end of the word. "I guess it's time that you saw what travel on the TARDIS truly entails." He looked to the monitor and the words: _I changed my mind, Doctor. You can come play if you want. 3 Rose._ Followed by the time coordinates specific to TARDIS navigation.

"Whatever trouble you're in, Rose. Hold on. I'm coming."


	8. The Kraddaw Ship

A/N: Stop and start and stop and start and stop and start again. I got in the zone three times and got interrupted each time, so this might not flow incredibly well. I'm still recovering, still sleepy, but I had to get a little more out if only to feel like I got _something_ done today….

~~oooOOOooo~~

They fell out of the blue vortex field with simultaneous gasps, retches and stumbles. Jack's retch was more productive than Rose's, and the young woman was quick to stroke at his cotton-covered back as he expelled the beer and bread rolls that he'd consumed at the restaurant with a moan and a cough.

"There, there, Jack, honey," Rose cooed with a slightly sarcastic chuckle. "I know that travelling the vortex can be a little difficult for some."

Jack straightened up, wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand and narrowed his gaze at her. "It's been several centuries, smartass," he graveled back in embarrassment. He pointed sharply at the Vortex Manipulator on his wrist. "And I don't yet know if we can blame your efforts at MacGuyvering it for the _bumpy_ ride we just went though."

"Yet I'm perfectly fine," she chirped. "Perhaps it is the superior female biology that allows me to travel without hurling chunks like … like …" she started to laugh. "Like a _man_."

Jack moved his face to hers and feigned a rather intense analytical look into her eyes. "That _you_, Doc? Did you and Rosie switch bodies with that snog in the washroom or something?"

Rose rolled her eyes and slapped his shoulder. "Wanker."

"Hmmmm," he hummed with a grin. "Rather partial to the activity, myself." He dropped his head and pointed up the corridor ahead of them. "Base wants us to find their main control room. This ship's been jumping timelines and planets…"

"Seems random, but randomness isn't typical to the Kraddaw," she finished with a sideways look at him. She shook her head at his curious stare. "I was at briefing, too, you know."

"Yeah," he drawled with a rather exaggerated look at the manipulator on his wrist. "So? Know anything about the Kraddaw that I might need to be made aware of?"

"Maybe," she sang as she led them slowly along the corridor, her fingertips grazing at the walls. "But unless you're a native of Kasterborous, they're not going to be particularly eager to do you harm."

"Okay," he breathed. "And why's that then?"

She didn't look at him. "Because you and I are what they consider to be _lesser species_. They're more inclined to challenge those who they deem are more evolved because their victory is that much greater." She took a breath. "They consider challenge upon life forms such as you and I to not only be completely beneath them, but an absolute waste of their time."

"They've obviously never met the two of us."

"No," she said with a grin. "They haven't."

"What else?"

"Hmmmm?"

"What else should I know about them?" He checked the sight of his weapon as he walked and talked, relying on Rose to keep an eye on the road ahead of them. "I mean, skipping and hopping through time and space is something I'd expect from the Doc…" He caught her look and breathed out a sound of realization. "Yeah. They're probably looking for him, then."

"The Time Lords and the armies of Borrav – which is across the constellation of Kasterborous from Gallifrey – went up against the invading armies of Kraddaw several centuries ago." She held her breath and therefore her words as she looked around a corner. Seeing it clear she waved for Jack to follow her. "The intention of the Kraddaw was to successfully overthrow the Time Lords to take control of the Untempered Schism, the eye of harmony, and essentially _Lord_ over all of creation."

"Pun intended?"

She huffed a breathy chuckle. "Oh yes. Absolutely." She licked at her lip and focused deeply into the dim corridor ahead of them. "The Time Lords called on the War Council of Gallifrey to assist, who sought assistance from the Borrav High Command. They were able to intercept the Kraddaw fleet and surround them, which forced them to the ground on a desolate and barren planet called Nidhae." She smiled with what could have been interpreted as absolute home-grown pride. "Engagement on the ground was swift with Gallifrey and Borrav as victors. The battle lasted less than a week before the Kraddaw fleet was completely annihilated and forced to surrender."

"Must've been something to watch: Time Lords at war."

Rose shook her head. "Nah. Time Lords don't engage in such nonsense," she huffed. "_Well_. Except for the Time War of course – which the council essentially hid themselves from anyway. For the Kraddaw engagement they left that to the War Council and the Arcadian Defense Forces."

"But the Doc?"

"Loves getting his hands dirty, what can I say," she answered with a shrug. "He was there, of course he was." She thought about it. "Third regeneration, shortly after his exile to Earth was lifted, and just before he regenerated into his Fourth."

Jack shot an arm across her chest to press his hand into the wall beside her and pause her in her walk. He pressed his finger to his lip and looked past her nose to look along the corridor. His voice dropped to a whisper as he caught movement at the end of the corridor. "Pair of them about fourty feet dead ahead." He slightly angled his face, his nose seated against hers. "Tricks for bringing these guys down?"

"Depends what you mean by _down_."

"So we don't end up killed."

"They regenerate," she offered quietly. "Three times in their lifespan, and it's impossible for you and me to tell which regeneration they're in."

"So. Okay. I shoot them four times."

"Waste of ammo," she said with a quiet laugh. "But you can take them down as easily as you can a Time Lord. She pointed to his left shoulder. "A decent blow – or shot – right there, and you'll drop 'em."

Jack frowned in confusion as he looked to his shoulder, up to Rose, and then back at his shoulder. "What?"

"Yeah. Right there. Big hit." She dipped her head to look into his face, her expression suggesting that she was incredibly surprised to learn that he didn't know. "Gallifreyan physiology 101. Left shoulder has a cluster of really vulnerable nerves…"

"So if I wanna drop the Doc, then all I have to do is…" he motioned punching his left shoulder.

Rose nodded. "But make it a good hit, because if you don't get it right the first time all you'll do is piss him off and he'll play dirty to put you down in retaliation."

"Got ya." He held his weapon in both hands and held the gun down between the part of his legs as he took a couple of preparatory breaths. "Single shot to the shoulder will drop them. No regeneration energy to dodge. Got it." He looked to Rose who didn't have hold of a weapon, but had her finger pressed against her lip in thought. "You good to go, Sweetheart?"

"Mmmhmmm," she hummed. "But, really, we could just walk on in there. They aren't interested in us."

"We're stowaways," he argued.

"We're_ Human_," she replied with a shrug. She then pulled her weapon from her hip holster. "But, sure. We can play it your way."

"I'd prefer it," he muttered.

Rose ran low, Jack ran high. They both held their weapons ahead of them, Jack with his gun held at shoulder level to the Kraddaw guards, Rose with a lower aim to catch a guard's shoulder if Jack's shot wasn't true.

They were immediately spotted as they rounded the corner and broke from the shadows that had obscured them. A pair of words thundered threateningly through the humanoid lips of one of the guards as he clawed at his own weapon.

"Ahhh shit," Rose called to Jack. "Go straight for the shot, Jack. They're…"

"I see it, Rosie," Jack called as his weapon coughed out a pair of shots, one of which found its mark and dropped a guard into a heap on the floor. "Outta the way," he snarled as Rose leapt over the prostate guard and barreled forward with her gun held his toward the other soldier. "I got solution, Rose. Duck."

"Mine!" Rose yelled as she dropped to her knees to slide toward the looming Kraddaw guard. She squared her elbow into its crotch, which felled it to his knees, then slammed her right shoulder into his left to leave him unconscious on the ground.

Rose giggled as she stumbled to her side, but righted herself quickly to draw to a stand. "I didn't think that was actually going to work," she remarked with a flick of her hair over her shoulder.

Jack was on her immediately. "Rose! What the _Hell_ was _that_?"

"_That_," she answered with a cheeky wink. "Was pure brilliance."

"No," he snapped. "That was incredibly foolish. I had the shot, you should've let me take it."

"A _shot_," she began on a low voice, "causes lingering injury. I brought that guard down in a manner that would ensure he suffers very little when he wakes." She picked her gun up off the ground and reholstered it. "It's not _his_ fault that he's here. He's simply following orders."

"And don't you think for a second that those orders don't include killing on sight anyone who shouldn't be on this ship."

"Well…"

"Stay behind me from now on," he ordered as he marched them both along the corridor. "I'm not going to let you do … whatever _that_ was … again."

She let out a breath and knitted her brows together in disappointment. "The Doctor would've been proud of that. I bet I would've even gotten a hug from him for how proud he was."

"I'm not the Doctor," he growled.

"No. You're not."

"And neither are you," he warned her with a voice that was quickly softening. He turned to face her, drawing her close with his hands on her arms. "You and me. We don't regenerate like he does. We don't have that little trick in our arsenal to let us try finesse attacks like he can." He pulled her against his chest in a protective, and worried, embrace. "I kinda like having you 'round, and don't wanna lose you because you don't want to take a shot at it." He squeezed her a little bit tighter and then released her to again hold her arms. "I don't want to lose you and then have to explain to both him and your Mum how I lost you."

"I'm sorry," she pleaded innocently. "I won't do it again."

Jack regarded the put-on innocence that Rose was quite effectively conveying to him. He couldn't continue to be mad at her or scared for her. No. Not when those brilliant amber eyes were so wide and her bottom lip so sadly poking out.

He cupped her cheek. "Okay," he breathed. "As long as you don't, okay?"

Rose suddenly gasped and snatched Jack's secondary weapon from a holster at his chest. In a movement so blindingly quick it was blurred, Rose had the gun held over Jack's shoulder and had fired off a single round.

The yell of pain from Jack as he held at his ear sounded out at the same instant that the heavy Kraddaw body dropped lifelessly to the ground behind him.

"Fuck, Rose," Jack spat with a cough as he covered his ear. "_Never_ fire a gun beside a man's ear. That's an explosion inside that little barrel," he schooled as he snatched the weapon from her hand. "You just set off a mini explosion – right. Beside. My. Ear."

"Oops?"

"I'll be hearing that ringing for the next month."

Rose thrust her hands guiltily into her pant pockets. "At least you can still hear, yeah? Even if it is only ringing right now."

"Not helping."

"I could always reboot you." She backed up with hands raised as he turned to her with a glare. "Just an option," she defended. "If the ringing is bugging you, then we can …" She motioned shooting him. "… and you … you know." She motioned him waking up.

"Not. An. Option."

"Oh, it is."

Jack shook his head and took her hand to pull them deeper into the corridor and toward where he hoped they would find the room that held the transport controls he was desperate to disable. "I'll be fine, Rosie."

"You always are."

Rose held in place a moment, which drew a tug from Jack. She tugged back to pull her hand from, his and focused her attention back into the corridor they'd just emerged from. "Crap," she breathed after a moment.

"What's wrong?"

"Two things," she answered as her eyes stared to quickly scan the area ahead and to the side of them. "One. We have the ship commander on approach – and very quickly." She blew out a breath as she petted the walls in search of a hidden access panel that she might be able to utilize for distraction. No such luck. "Seems that our activities haven't gone unnoticed."

"Okay," Jack sang smoothly as he pulled a gun and checked the load and the sights. "And what's the second thing?"

"We've been heading in the wrong direction." She swallowed and pointed in the direction they'd just come from. "The Dynamorphic Power Station room is…" She rolled her head to him. "I'm sorry. I should've picked up on that much earlier."

Jack shook his head. "I don't know that you should've even picked it up at all, Rosie. No need to apologise." He tapped the muzzle of his gun against his chin. "So we arsed this up something spectacular, didn't we?"

She pressed her lips together and shook her head. "Nah. We can still save face."

"How do you propose that we do that?"

"By blasting our way back thattaway," she offered with a high shrug and a thrust of her thumb toward the corridor. "Think we have enough ammo?"

"Can you do your freaky trick of the _force_ to determine how many we're facing this time around?"

She bit at her top lip and shook her head. "Nope."

"Have you got your sparkly phone?"

"Yep."

"Wanna call for backup?"

Rose whipped out her old Nokia and held it in front of her. She frowned. She held it up and walked a circle as though looking for a decent place that would give her adequate bars to make a call. "Dead zoned," she moaned defeatedly. "Even though it's been jiggery-poked by Time Lord Brilliance."

Jack took hold of a fistful of her shirt shoulder and tugged her into the corridor at a fast run. "Well. Maybe you could call on your own special brand of _brilliance _to get it working for us."

Rose stumbled lightly in the run, and managed to use her shoulder striking against the wall to quickly right herself. She held the phone in front of her and watched the indications closely. "I don't have that level of brilliance," she moaned.

"No," he huffed doubtfully. "I guess not."

The pair of them skidded at a T-Junction and looked either way in consideration of their next path. It was decided quickly by Rose, who quickly shot to the left and barreled down into its depths. Jack took a moment to watch as she passed by sensors that flashed the lights on along her path to guide her way. He took too much of a moment to watch her run with such magnificent determination and a light, feathery, gait. So long, in fact, that he didn't notice the five-man troop of Kraddaw soldiers that she was running a direct line toward.

"Rose," he cried as he launched from his position and held his weapon high.

Rose saw the guards the instant she heard Jack call his desperate warning cry of her name. She managed to skid into a stumble which stopped her just short of colliding against one of the largest humanoid chests she'd ever seen.

"Oh hell," she mumbled as she shuffled a few steps backward. "Aren't you _big_?"

The leader of the group sneered down at the petite blonde. He leaned down and inhaled a deep breath, raising his eyes hotly as Jack slipped in between he and Rose to stand sentry between them.

"Back the fuck off," Jack warned with his weapon held against the man's shoulder. "This is one woman you seriously don't want to mess about with."

The Kraddaw kept an eye on Jack as he snapped his fingers to his men. "My fellow soldiers of Kraddaw, it looks like we have guests."

"Yeah," Jack snarked. "And we aren't the kind of guests that get invited back again – if you get my meaning."

"Quite," the Kraddaw sneered. His eyes shifted toward Rose. "Since when does a Lady of Gallifrey seek the protection of a mere Human?"

"Excuse me?" she asked with a high brow.

"I thought it was beneath your kind to associate with lesser species such as the Apes of Earth." He flicked his finger in a request for the pair to follow him. "Come with me."

Jack and Rose stood their ground and did not move to follow. _Well_. Not until they received dual shoves on their backs with weapons that would likely blow them into multiple pieces. They both begrudgingly stepped forward to follow.

"I thought that your kind had finally been annihilated."

Rose looked to Jack with a frown of confusion and then looked back to the Kraddaw leader. "Excuse me?"

"The Time Lords," he clarified. "It's our understanding that Gallifrey was finally destroyed and the Gallifreyan people brought about to extinction."

"Not quite, there's one left," Rose breathed softly.

He turned quickly and growled predaciously as he clutched a fistful of hair in one hand. HE drew I a long inhale of the scent held within his fist. "One is enough for me."

"Leave her alone," Jack snarled. He stepped forward to shove the Kraddaw leader backward with a shove against his shoulder. "I don't care what regeneration you're in, and how many you have left. I'll keep firing until you're finally down if you so much as make her peep."

"Have you taken this one as your mate," the Kraddaw asked Rose with a somewhat disgusted chortle. He released her hair with a flick of his hand and turned to continue along the corridor. "Not that I can fault you I suppose. It must be lonely as the last of your kind."

"I am not the last of my … hold on." Rose looked to Jack and then to the Kraddaw leader as they were led into an open room. "You think … you think I'm from Gallifrey?"

Jack laughed at that. "Her," he challenged with a thumb poke at Rose. "You think this girl's a pompous and arrogant Time Lord?" He dramatically wiped at his eye. "Oh. That's brilliant. Wait until I tell that to the Doc."

Rose shot him a faux stare of irritation. "What? You don't think I have what it takes to be a Lady of Time?"

"You've _met_ the Doctor, right?"

"Yeah, I have, actually." Her eyes widened a moment and she had to nod in agreement as, slightly to her rear, she felt Jack press something into her hand. "Guess you're right then. Not like him. Nothing like him."

The Kraddaw shifted his head down and made a point of inhaling deeply. "Then why do I smell Time Lord on you."

Jack moved to step in front of Rose, who was currently thumbing open the back of an old cellphone to release the battery and circuitry. "What you can smell on her," he laughed with a cheeky sound and shifted a little closer to the man. "The Time Lord scent you're catching, it actually belongs to her _boyfriend_."

"He's not my _boyfriend_," Rose sang with a louder accent on the final word to make the sound of the battery popping loudly out of its holder. "We're just casual acquaintances."

"Oh _please_," Jack countered with a deliberately exaggerated moan. "Then what was that hot snog with him in the men's all about then? Genetic transfer?"

Rose winked and licked coyly at her lip. Her eyes asked Jack to keep up the charade and distract the alien a little while longer. "What can I say, he has a very gifted tongue." Her look to the Kraddaw was apologetic as she licked her lip. "I'm sorry to get your hopes up, but what you're getting from me, I got from _him_ about a half hour ago."

The Kraddaw's face darkened with disgust. "Then you'll tell me how to find this Time Lord."

She shook her head, keeping her gaze low to concentrate on the paired phones in her hand. "No. I don't think that'd be a really good idea." Her eyes lifted only a moment, and only to offer a darkened look. "You'd be a little outnumbered."

"How very cute," the Kraddaw moaned with a look at droll as hers. "A single Time Lord doesn't pose a threat against one Kraddaw let alone an entire ship."

"You've heard of the Doctor, haven't you?" Rose asked as she slowly raised her hand up high, with two joined cellphones held within, and twisted in a small circle to look for her best vantage point. She looked briefly over her shoulder at the Kraddaw leader as she hit send on her message and gave a smile. "Grey poufy hair, velvet jacket, frilly shirt – a bit on the completely and utterly arrogant and self-righteous side. He fought in the battle against your kind when the Kraddaw fell to the Borrav and Gallifrey armies."

"Really?" Jack asked with a laugh as he noticed the Kraddaw soldiers take a tentative step backward. "He _actually_ looked like that?"

"When we get out of this, we can take the manipulator to UNIT back in the 1970's and you can see for yourself."

The Kraddaw leader angled his head to one side and looked at her with a suspicious glare. "You are allied with the Doctor?"

"Why, yes," Jack answered with a smile. "We are."

He pointed toward Rose and the paired phones in her hand. "What have you done?"

She looked down at her hand. "This? Oh yes. This." She looked up at him. "I thought you wanted to see the last of the Time Lords, so I sent an invitation out to the Doctor." She held up her hand with a very Doctoresque look of condescension. "Yes, I know. You have shields and barriers up in place in order to prevent unauthorized transmissions being sent or received within this ship." She leaned to one side to push the phone into the cargo pocket of her pants, but kept it in her hand a moment longer. "Which is why I rerouted the basic cellular signal through this ship's Emergency Transeceiver. That signal field enabled me to easily access the chronospatial antenna on board this ship to route the message via the Interstitial antenna on the Doctor's TARDIS. All done on a primitive Nokia from Earth…" she held up her phone. "This one." She then completed her task of dropping her phone into her pocket. "I was also able to program a very short Emergency Materialization code that the TARDIS tracking system can use to precisely triangulate the date, time, and location of my originating signal." She passed a look to Jack, who had the courtesy to shield his absolute shock with a look of pride and awe. "Now it's just up to our Time Boy to decide whether or not he wants to come and play with us."

"Rosie," Jack breathed with a shudder. "I believe that's the sexiest thing I've ever heard fall from those delicious lips of yours." He smirked. "Come to think of it, it's the sexiest thing _anyone's _ever said."

Rose swallowed in disappointment to not hear the TARDIS. Where to go from here?

"Seriously," Jack continued as he slid to beside Rose and roughly pressed his spare gun into her hand. He could feel her worry at the fact that they weren't hearing the materialization of the TARDIS, which had to mean that her message didn't make it through the void and they were on their own. It was up to him to create the new plan now. "If the Doc heard all that gorgeous tech talk, he'd be so turned on that he'd rip off that pinstripe suit of his, throw himself on the floor – naked – and beg you to take him where he lay."

"Actually," the Doctor's voice crooned smoothly from the back of the room, where he'd lain in wait for them since landing his TARDIS ten minutes earlier inside a cubby hole in the back. "While I agree that it is, indeed, the most arousing thing I have heard in many _many_ centuries. I'm not the kind to engage in such overt and indiscrete displays." He winked at Rose. "So beneath the high and mighty arrogance of a Time Lord." He then gave a smile and a wave to the Kraddaw. "Hello. I'm the _Boyfriend, _but you can call me the _Doctor._"


	9. Speaking His Language

A/N: Holy fast and awesome reviews! How completely stellar that you guys commented so quickly. You don't have any idea how awesome it makes me feel to hear from you … things like extra chapters end up getting posted.

This is just a bit o' fluff I guess … I'll probably look at it again tomorrow and moan painfully because I muffed it up (It's after midnight here, and as a mum I'm usually exhausted and in bed by 9 …)

Happy Mother's Day to the Mums out there. You are all awesome and amazing women! We love out mums!

~~oooOOOooo~~

The Kraddaw Leader took a fairly long moment to analyze the man in front of him. All pinstripes, scruffed hair, sandshoes and youth, he almost doubted that this man could be one of the Time Lords. Had it not been for the acrid woody odour that permeated out of each of his Gallifreyan pores, the Kraddaw leader would have passed him off as Human.

He quickly raised pointed hackles on the back of his neck and hulked low thick in front of them. "Time Lord," he snarled.

"I thought we'd already established that. _Well._ At least Jack and Rose had identified me as such. I don't believe that I had actually confirmed to you that I was Gallifrey-born." He flicked open his jacket and thrust his hands into his trouser pockets. "Or _loomed_, if you want to get particularly specific. Which I know you lot tend to do." He shrugged. "But anyway. I'm here. I'm Time Lord. And I'm just a little bit … no … make that a lot annoyed that you have decided to detain and threaten my intended bond mate and her best friend." His lips pursed dramatically. "Which means he must be my friend, too, by default."

"Gee. Thanks Doc."

"Moreover," the Doctor continued. "Why? Why would you start swanning about and scaring the Humans? You have to know how fast they freak out and what level of stupidity comes from that."

"I'm going to take offence to that on behalf of my entire planet," Rose muttered as she folded a petulant cross of her arms across her chest. "And I'm not your intended anything."

"Ahh yes," he breathed. "That's right. _Casual Acquaintance_ only, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"But with a gifted tongue that you like to _snog_ for genetic transfer purposes?" He watched her nod and gave a short one of his own. "Okay then." He looked back to the Kraddaw leader. "Where were we, then? Ahh yes. Scaring the Humans. Why?"

"The _why_ isn't important," he snapped in response. "What _is_ important is that we now have you, _Doctor_, in our clutches. Victory over Gallifrey and the Time Lords is ours."

"I see," The Doctor muttered with a rub of his chin. He walked toward Jack and Rose and offered them a smile and a wink as he moved in to stand between them before turning to regard the Kraddaw once again. "Could the reason that it isn't so important be because you ended up on a class 3 planet by _mistake_?" He bust out a laugh at the sheepish and guilty expression that crossed the face of their captor. "It is! Oh that's just brilliant. What in Rassilon happened for you to make a mistake that ended you up here?" He laughed a breathy laugh and thumbed either side of him to Rose and Jack. "And then. _Then_. Then you get schooled by a pair of Humans with hand guns." He continued to laugh as one of his hands moved into his trouser pocket and the other dropped to take Rose's hand in his. He was relieved to feel her fingers quickly mould themselves around his. "I wonder what the War Council of Kraddaw will think of this little escapade?"

"These aren't your average humans," the Kraddaw leader suddenly hissed. "In all of my travels throughout all solar systems where Humans have made themselves at home, not once have I seen what burns within them both."

The Doctor smiled a thin line of a smile as he slowly lowered his chin to glare toward the Kraddaw leader. "You're right. They aren't your average human. Jack is an immortal human born of the Planet Boe, and Rose." He looked to her with a longing expression. "Rose is the brilliant woman who saved a Time Lord, who continues to save him even as she breaks his hearts in four." He drew his hand from his pocket and lifted it to cup affectionately at her cheek.

The next series of words that fell from his lips were in a language that no man in the room understood. They were soft and melodious, rhythmic and powerful. One didn't have to understand the words to recognise that whatever he was saying was something to be shared only between two.

Jack noted the watering look inside of Rose's eyes as the Doctor spoke to her. She bit at the right side of her bottom lip as she hung on each word. Her brow furrowed and her eyes fluttered shut as the Doctor's words moved toward their apex, and she nodded with a whimper. She continued to nod and focus on his words as he spoke, not opening her eyes until she was required to respond, and when she did, both Jack and the Doctor hitched in deep breaths as she spoke in the same melodic tones as the Doctor.

I was clear to Jack that her response hit at the Doctor hard, with the Time Lord's subtle dip in his stand from weakened knees. He didn't comment, nor did he query the Doctor's state of mind. Instead he kept his eyes on the Kraddaw soldiers, who seemed to stand respectfully quiet.

Finally, English fell from the Doctor's lips as he pulled Rose against his chest and pressed his forehead against hers. Their lips didn't touch, but their breaths were hard.

"Do you understand," he asked her on a whisper as he stroked at her hair and puffed his breaths against her mouth.

"Yes, Doctor," she answered with a sigh. "I do."

"And?"

"I will."

He clutched her tightly against him and spoke quietly against her ear before he pulled back and turned to readdress the Kraddaw leader. "My apology. I was reaffirming…"

"Yes," he snarled. "And I find it incredibly distasteful that you would find it necessary to do that at this very point in time."

The Doctor shrugged and passed a look back to Rose. "Well. If I am to be defeated at your hand – which will invariably involve execution enough to exhaust my regenerations, then surely you will excuse a man's need to ensure that his beloved is made very well aware of the feelings I harbour for her deep within my hearts."

"If that is your final wish."

"My final wish is that they are both unharmed and returned to their own time and place in this universe."

"Then you will come with me," he grunted. He then looked to Jack, who stood stoically at Rose's side as she wept into her hands. "Your humans can remain with your TARDIS and will be returned to Earth once we have you secure." He looked to his men. "Keep him well covered. Even contained a Time Lord cannot be trusted."

The Doctor held out his wrists to allow himself to be cuffed. He passed a look back to Jack and gave him a slow nod. "Protect her, Jack. I'm trusting you to keep her safe."

"This isn't how it ends, Doc," he warned. "Not at all."

"Good bye, Captain Jack Harkness. We were something else, weren't we?" He gave a startled yelp as a Guard gave him a shove against his right shoulder to push him out the door.

Slowly the remaining Kraddaw's left the room to leave Jack and Rose alone. Jack moved to comfort his weeping field partner, but was stunned when she very quickly straightened up, stopped her weeping, and wiped at her eyes.

"Right," she began shortly. "In the TARDIS. The Doctor's got some schematics on the TARDIS monitors, and he's got her prepped to get us, and him, out of here when we finalize his plan."

Jack jogged to catch up with her determined walk as she moved to the back of the room. "What up a minute. What plan? How did you know he had a plan?"

"Doesn't he always?"

"How do you know what it is?"

She smirked with a shake of her head as she stepped up to the blue doors of the TARDIS and lovingly ran her hands along the wooden surface. "What else did you think we were talking about, Jack? _How he feels about me_? Really?"

"You mean all that…?" He pointed back into the now empty room. "That was _all_ faked?"

"Not _faked_," she corrected softly. "At least not completely. He did say that he intended that I become … well … _more_ than just a _casual acquaintance_ with _snogging_ _rights_." She cleared her throat and then bit at her lip. "But the rest was definitely about what he had planned, and what parts you and I have to play in it." She pushed open the door of the TARDIS, sighing at the squeak she'd missed so much. "Hello my beautiful girl. Miss me?"

"Wait wait," Jack pressed as he followed her onto the ramp. "How much _more_ than _more_ is this intended _more_ of his?"

Rose deflected quickly with a hard clearing of her throat. "We have new mission parameters, Jack. Let's focus on that, shall we?"

He grinned as he leaned his hand into the console's edge and watched Rose call up the information the Doctor had told her to retrieve. "When did you learn Gallifreyan?"

"Hmmm?"

"That's what the two of you were speaking, right? The language of the Lords?"

"Oh. Yeah," she answered somewhat dismissively. "TARDIS played a hand in that conversation," she said with a wink to the Time Rotor column. "Finally she lets me understand Time Lord babble spoken in Arcadian." She looked up at the monitor with much the same upward focus that the TARDIS' usual pilot did. "Oh. Such a clever boy, aren't you, Doctor?"

Jack leaned down beside her and looked up at the screen and at circular images that meant absolutely nothing to him. "Looks like he's put you in the command chair, honey?"

"TARDIS," she asked gently. "Can you translate for Jack, please?" She pressed her finger gently to her lip and finished in a whisper. "I promise I won't tell your thief."

"Who's the _Thief_," a familiar voice coyly queried from the doorway to the TARDIS corridor. "Where's the Doctor?" Nancy looked down at her running shoes hidden underneath a pair of tight yoga pants. "Will this be okay to wear out there?"

Jack puffed out an annoyed breath. "Tell me he has something in his notes regarding how we're to deal with the Princess."


	10. Dazed and Confused

A/N: Thanks, oh thanks, for all of your kind words and reviews! I'm so very thrilled that so many of you are enjoying this! I hope you continue to. I really do.

Still busy, but covertly worked on this one today ….

~~oooOOOooo~~

It wasn't possible that Jack Harkness was completely and absolutely immortal. No. There had to be at least one way to kill him. Surely there was. There absolutely positively had to be at least _one_ way to kill an immortal man.

…and she would find it.

Oh yes. Rose Tyler would most definitely call upon any level of intelligence that she had – probably query TARDIS and the Doctor too while she was at it – to find that one invariable weakness of his and exploit the shit out of it to put him six feet under. No. Not only six. His death would be so swiftly dealt and precisely executed that they'd have to bury him at twice the normal depth in respect to her murderous brilliance.

..Yes. Yes they would, and then they'd write stories and sing songs about it all across the universe.

Rose slid an annoyed glance toward the flat ironed, manicured, pedicured, facial-loving princess walking at her side. The voice wouldn't stop, neither would that incessant flicking of that long ponytail from one shoulder to the next. Rose had long ago tuned out the non-stop babble from the woman walking beside her. Nancy had nothing of importance to add to their current situation, and Rose really didn't feel like tutoring her on things not pertinent to helping get the Doctor out of trouble.

Oh. But she wouldn't shut up.

Rose rubbed tiredly at her brow as she allowed her mind to wander back to thoughts of homicide against Jack. And considering he hadn't actually even technically been born yet, would it really be homicide?

"Are you even listening to me, Rose? Have you heard a word I've said?"

Rose pressed her lips together in a thin line as she shook her head and kept her gaze to the corridor ahead of them. Their only means of defense, Rose's Torchwood handgun, hung to Rose's right side, and her fingers itched against the trigger.

"Rose! I said…"

"Yes," Rose snapped finally along a low and hoarsely whispered breath. "I think this entire ship is hearing you."

"Oh," Nancy muttered with a frightened look around her. "Do you think that they might know we're here?"

"Oh, they know we're here," Rose said with another quiet mutter. "But they'd be less likely to identify our current position if you'd consider shutting your mouth and staying quiet."

Nancy coughed disgustedly as the two of them entered into what appeared to be a control room. "Well. You're being slightly rude, aren't you?"

Rose paused in place. She counted to five in her mind. She counted to five again. She then turned toward Nancy and took a step closer to her. She licked her lips before she spoke, if only to make sure that she chose carefully the next words.

"Nancy. I apologise if you think that I'm being rude. I really do. But the Doctor is currently in the clutches of an enemy that wants to destroy him; an enemy that is highly evolved, much more technically advanced than you and I and about 90% of the entire universe, and very much aware of how to very quickly dispatch a Time Lord of Gallifrey." She sniffed threateningly. "We don't know how long we have until they decide to kill him."

"Why would they want to kill him?"

Rose angled her head to one side and found herself taking a step backward. "How long have you travelled with the Doctor?"

"About four or five months."

"And in that time just how many times has the TARDIS landed the two of you in a hostile destination?"

She shrugged her shoulder up to her ear. "Never, actually. Our trips are always quite pleasant."

Rose's mouth opened to speak, but quickly shut again as a shocked look crossed her face. "What? _Really_?"

"Really," she answered with a surprised look. "Why? Did you and him get into trouble sometimes?"

"_All_ the time." Rose's eyes were wide as she shook her head in disbelief. "All the bloody time. I can't really remember too many trips where we didn't end up running for our lives." She tucked her hair behind her ear and tried to shrug it off as she moved toward the main console and took a moment to familiarize herself with the controls. "I guess you got lucky."

"Travelling with the Doctor," Nancy breezed with a smile. "I definitely got lucky."

"Then never let him go," she advised softly. "The Doctor is the greatest man you will ever meet. Hold his hand tight and learn everything he wants to teach you about." She dipped to pull a small set of screwdrivers from her cargo pocket. "He's capable of great passion, great love, even greater compassion. There's no one like him."

"You're in love with him, aren't you?"

Her motion of unscrewing the panel to the side of the console paused momentarily. She cleared her throat and gave a nod. "He's an easy man to fall in love with him." She snorted a laugh and went back to the panel. "Daft alien that he is."

"He loves you, too, you know."

Rose's focus on the panel tightened. "Anyway," she said quickly. "I need to make sure that I can bypass the nav signal through the TARDIS so that Jack can set this thing on a magical mystery tour of the universe."

"You need to do what now," Nancy commented as she checked the varnish on her nails in a rather bored manner.

"Never mind," Rose muttered with great effort as she pulled out a nest of wires and frowned at them. "Oh, this is not going to be as easy as the Doctor made out it will be." She tugged harder to pull them into a much more comfortable length to view them properly. "Why me? Surely Jack is a better jiggery pokery kinda person than me."

"Because I believe in you," the Doctor's scratchy and sleepy voice from a darkened room off to their rear. "My Rose Tyler. So smart. She can do anything."

Both Nancy and Rose let out a gasp and shot their attentions to what looked like a small cell burrowed out of a wall in the corner of the back of the room. The Doctor sat on the floor against black metal bars with his hands bound in front of him and his eyes drooping with tiredness.

Rose launched from her position on the floor and darted toward the cell. She dropped to her knees beside him and clutched at the bars with a grip so tight that her knuckles whitened.

"Doctor," she breath worriedly as she looked between both of his eyes and noticed the lazy, unfocused movements of his eyes. "What've they done to you?"

He gave her a weak smile as his eyes slowly trailed from her shoulder, up her neck and to her face. "Oh. They just gave me a little something to keep he calm and maliable."

"They _drugged_ you?" she screeched incredulously.

He closed his eyes and pressed his finger to his lips as he nodded. "Shhh, my Rose Tyler. I'm okay. I'll be okay. Always okay, doncha know?" He let his arm drop and rolled his head on the wall and added a shift in his hips to face himself toward her. "Seems that a Time Lord is a tricky beast to contain. And it appears that an itty bitty little bit of diazepam, which is from the family benzodiazepine, doncha know, is a really effective way to put down a man of Gallifrey. _Well_. When I say _put down_, I don't mean that in a sick pet that has to go to sleep kind of put down. I really mean that it …" He moaned and rubbed at his face before he faced her again. "I really don't want to babble right now. Is that okay? Will you still believe that I'm me and I'm okay if I don't break out in babble?"

"Of course," she whispered softly in response. She threaded her hand through the bars to stroke at his head, smiling when he closed his eyes and … was that a purr?

"Are you sure you're okay," she queried gently.

"I'm the King of Okay," he answered with a roll of his eyes. "I thought you knew that."

"Ahh. You assumed."

"No. I think I've actually said it to you several times throughout our friendship." He moved his head to press his forehead against the bars. He smiled at her. A lazy grin full of cheek. "Haven't you been listening to me, Rose? My sweet Rose. My perfect little bud. Tight little petals of red and pink that capture the rainbow of colours and the full spectrum of light on the smallest of dew drops in the morning."

"You sound like you're drunk."

"Time Lords don't get drunk," he chided lightly. He moved closer to the bars and pressed himself close enough that he would be sure to have red indents from the bars in his forehead and on his cheeks when he pulled back. "I'm just a little drugged right now. But that's fine. I am already metabolizing it at a rate far greater than the Kraddaw gave me credit for, and so in – oh – an hour or so I might be back to normal… Well, normal as normal is for me."

"Is there anything I can do to help you in the meantime?"

"Oh," he answered with a smile. "You're already doing it, Rose. Just finish what I asked you to do, and get off this ship. TARDIS will take you. She really likes you, you know. And I'm more than happy to know that my lifelong companion will be in really good hands."

Rose shuffled closer to the bars, pressing herself against them to move as close to the Doctor as she could. "Please don't talk like you're not going to get out of this."

He lowered his head on the bars and looked up at her with a terrifically heartbreaking wounded puppy look. "I just might not."

"I won't leave you here."

His eyes flicked toward Nancy, who hadn't moved from her position beside the console with her hands covering her mouth in shock. "But you still have to get _her_ out of here, Rose. Remember, my companions and their safety should always come ahead of mine."

"Bullshit," she whispered softly as she pressed her forehead into the bars across from his. "You're just as important, maybe even moreso, than any of us."

"Not to me." He shifted his chin to have his nose brush gently against hers. "There's nothing in this universe more important than the people who choose to travel at my side. I'm just the pilot, Rose. It's all of you who hold the magic."

"Don't be a daft shit," she challenged. "Me'n Jack. We're going to get you out of here."

"I know," he admitted with a light shift in his seat for comfort. He kept his head against the bars and kept his head low so that he could always look up at her with wonder, awe, and sheer longing. "My most loyal companion. My beautiful Rose Tyler."

"Shut up," she breathed in response. She thread her hand through the bars to try and reach for his, bound together in his lap. She smiled as he danced his fingers to capture hers in his. "You'll be okay, yeah? You an' me, Doctor. We'll get out of this and …"

"I love you," he blurted suddenly. "You know that, don't you?"

"Of course," she answered with a soft smile. "You love all of your companions."

"No. Not like that. Rose," he urged gently. "Look at me. Please."

She let her eyes drift up to his. "What, Doctor?"

"I _love_ love you," he whispered. "That kind of love that you read about in your trashy novels. A girl. A boy. A desperate emotional passion to be one with each other, marriage, kids, dying together." He took a breath. "Except here we have a Time Lord and his beautiful Human girl, pushing each other away instead of succumbing to their needs and expressing both physically and emotionally their love for each other."

Rose chuckled lightly. "You need to ease up on the Diazapam, I think. It makes you say silly things."

"It makes me tell the truth," he assured with a slightly hurt look on his face. "When I called you my intended bond mate, I wasn't kidding around. It's a want. A need." He smiled weakly. "It's … oh … I dunno," he sighed as he rolled his head off the bars and leaned back against the wall of the cell. "Call it _instinct_, I guess, me calling you my intended back there. My whole being wants to align with you. It does. I do."

Rose shushed him quickly. "Doctor. How about we save conversations like this for when you aren't high as a kite on narcotics."

"Might be a good idea," he agreed.

"It's a _very _good idea," she confirmed.

"But you'll be there for the conversation, yeah?" he pressed desperately. "I mean, you won't just up and leave me again."

Rose winced at the horrifically pained look he gave her. A look of pure desperation that was so very un-Doctor that it made her feel slightly ill. "We have to find a way to minimize the effect of this drug, Doctor. You're scaring me, you really are."

He chuckled with a shake of his head. "It scares you to know that I'm in love with you." He sighed. "Well isn't that just _brilliant_?" He rolled his head to look at her again. "Usually I'm the _unrequiter_. It's a different feeling to be the _unrequitee_."

Rose considered that for a moment. With a flare in her eyes, she shook her head. "Oh it's not unrequited, Doctor. Not at all. It is most definitely a _requited_ love. I haven't been shy in expressing it to you." She breathed out. "I'm just worried about you, that's all. The drugs. You know."

"Oh they need it," he answered her with a sigh and a writhe against the wall. "Regeneration is a tricky thing for them to counter, so they've pulling out everything in their arsenal that might prolong regeneration long enough that they can kill me properly." He shrugged. "Slow me down and drug me just might be the ticket." Another shrug. "Or not. Who knows. At least in this state I can't escape, right?"

"You have me, Doctor. You'll get out of this." She thread her hand through the bars and clutched his hand. "We can do this, yeah? Even with you all loopy Time Lord puppy dog, we'll get you out."

"I can increase my metabolism, flush it out of me faster," he offered with a still tired look. "Or, I can always try and shock it out of me. That can work. Superior Time Lord physiology and all that – a sudden shock, in comes the flight or fight, out goes the lazy sleepy. Could work I guess, if you're capable."

"Shock? Yeah. I reckon I'm more than capable of giving you some of that."

He nodded. Then he laughed. "Oh. I don't think that you're actually capable of shocking me, Rose Tyler. There is nothing you can do that will shock me."

"Oh no?" She challenged as she let go of his hand and let it fall to cup lightly at the front of his trousers. She gave a light squeeze. "How's that?"

He lazily looked down and then turned to her to give her an even lazier smile. "That doesn't exactly shock me, Rose Tyler, but it does bring about a rather spectacular amount of aching desire. And if you shift your hand just slightly more centre, then you'll probably illicit a sound from the back of my throat quite unlike you've ever heard before."

"I'm almost tempted to take you up on that suggestion," she said with a giggle. "But instead, come here," she urged softly as she shifted her hand to his face to draw his ear to her mouth. She spoke a whisper against the shell of his ear, a hand full of words that immediately had his eyes fire open wide.

He jerked back suddenly, his eyes wide and his mouth gaped. "You're not serious."

She nodded. "I am."

The centre of his brow knitted tightly together. "No. You can't be telling me the truth. Not with. With … You've told me things, Rose. Things that would make what you're saying to me very unlikely."

"I promise you, Doctor. What I just told you is the absolute truth." She tucked her hair behind her ear and moved in a manner that suggested she was going to stand and leave.

Although bound together, both of his hands shot through the bars to grab at her arm. "Please. Rose. You can't drop a bomb like that on me and just walk away." He pressed his forehead hard against the bars. His eyes were clearing very quickly, and the sloth in his movement had definitely vanished. "What you've just told me. Are you sure?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "It's not so much a matter of me being _sure _about it, Doctor. I _know_ it to be a fact."

"But, with …"

"Didn't happen."

"Oh but surely …"

"Not there, either."

"Really?"

Rose rolled her eyes and drew herself to a stand. "As I stand here today, I do promise you, Doctor of Gallifrey, that it has never ever _ever_ happened. Never. Never ever."

The Doctor clutched both hands on the bar and looked up at her standing over him from across the bars. That ethereal quality he always saw in her, that brilliant light that drew the most sensational sense of pride and awe and love and desire from him … well, in the last thirty seconds that had shot up in brilliant intensity. He quickly slid his hands up the bars and pulled himself to a stand. "But if we… You and me?" He flicked his fingers between the two of them. "If?"

"Yes," she answered quickly with a nod of her head. "Without a second thought."

He tugged on the bars. "Okay. Now I have to get out of here." He blinked several quick blinks at her. "You can get me out, yeah?"

Rose winked and thumbed toward the console. "Well. I have something that it more pressing to deal with right now. You seem to be back to normal now."

He panted lightly against the bars. "Normal as normal is," he muttered as he rolled his forehead along one of the bars of the cell. His eyes were locked on her as she walked back to the console. "But. I still might need some help from you to get out of here."

"Need incentive?"

"What?"

"Tell you what," she joked with a wink as she dropped down onto her hands and knees to crawl under the console. "If you can make it out of that room in less than three minutes, then I'll take you up on your offer to once again fly at your side in the TARDIS. One trip, maybe two. Three perhaps."

There was enough time for her only to inhale before the Time Lord was out of the room and in a crouch beside her. "TARDIS will be thrilled, you know that?"

Rose actually jumped with shock at his voice beside her. "What the? How?"

"Do you need some help down there," he asked with ignorance to her question. "Budge over and let me get in there with you."

"Perfectly fine by myself," she countered with a sing song voice. "You stay up there and continue detoxing." She whistled. "Or you can get on the computers there and reprogram a few things on my behalf."

"What," he muttered, "because you got distracted from your parameters by a handsome Time Lord?" He grunted and winced a tight crease in his face as her foot collided with his shin. He dramatically held his shin as he hopped toward the computer. "By Rassilon, was that necessary?"

"Oh yes. It was."

"So this is what I'm setting myself up for," he groused as his focus went to the keyboard and monitor and he quickly reprogrammed each change he'd originally assigned to Rose.

"What was that, Doctor?" Rose queried as she moved to another nest of wires.

"Marrying you," he answered. "I'm setting myself up for kicks and slaps and all of the joy and wonder of a Tyler woman's punishment."

"Right. I'm done," she chirped, and then squeaked as the Doctor grabbed her ankle and tugged her out of the cubby hole sliding on her back. "Thanks. And. _What_? Marriage? Who the hell is talking about marriage?"

He dropped his hand to help her to her feet and shrugged with a roll of his eyes. "Just stating my intention, that's all." He kicked his Converse along the floor. "If I'm going to court you I just want to make sure that you're aware that there is intention of commitment."

"I don't think all the drugs are out of your system yet," she accused with a cut-eye glare at him as she moved with a lean over the keyboard to check on the Doctor's programming. "Jack should be up any moment now. Schedule indicates contact inside of seven minutes, twenty seconds." She looked down to the keyboard and then back up at the screen, ignoring the ever so slight sweetness of the Doctor's breath against her cheek as he looked over her shoulder.

He pointed at the monitor. "Jack's complete. Look at that new data string."

"Clever little immortal." Her breath hissed in an inhale when she felt his hands ever so lightly touch at her hips.

"I think we're all done here," he advised with a chirp in his tone as he used his hold on Rose's waist to spin her around. He looked up at Nancy, who had by now taken to sitting in the captain's chair, sideways, with her legs over the arm rest, checking out the latest on her Facebook news feed. "Good to go, Nancy?"

She jumped up quickly from the chair and smoothed out her clothing with a little more stroking of her body than was truly necessary. "Are you two finally done with your awkward declarations of love?"

If she was chewing gum, then she would likely have snapped it, blown a bubble and snapped her mouth again. Rose closed her eyes and counted off to five. When she opened them again to look at the Doctor, she couldn't shield the question of _why_ in her gaze.

The Doctor simply shrugged in response to her silent question.

"If I'm coming back on board," she warned darkly without finishing her demand.

The Doctor understood completely. "The TARDIS thanks you. She's been making the same demand now for months."

"Next time, listen to the women in your life." She lifted her arms to pull her hair back into a taile and tied an elastic around the handful. Her head was dipped as she looked toward the Doctor. "So? Get Jack, return to TARDIS, say buh-bye to evil Time Lord hatin' aliens?"

"Sounds like a rather viable plan to me," The Doctor crooned with a smile. He looked back up to Nancy. "Come on, you. Time to get going."

She rolled her eyes and strode quickly ahead of them to the doorway of the room. "I'll get us there," she moaned with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Let me do _something_ here."

She walked face-first into a Kraddaw guard's chest. He gave a derisive snort as he shoved the muzzle of his gun into her stomach and pulled back on the trigger. The bright light, and the scream of Nancy filled the room brightly. The Doctor hollered the young woman's name in absolute panicked horror and launched forward to catch her as she fell. Rose was a half step behind him.

Before the could reach her, both Time Lord and human found themselves similarly engulfed in a soupy, thick wall of sponging, bulging time. Their hearts hammered heavily inside their chests as they struggled to breathe, and they felt their bodies get drawn backwards.

Although her feet fight against it, Rose felt herself be returned to her place beside the Doctor.

"Sounds like a rather viable plan to me," The Doctor crooned with a smile. He looked back up to Nancy. "Come on, you. Time to get going."

Rose coughed to hear him repeat those words. Her eyes flared wide and horrored as she suddenly leapt forward into a run before Nancy could break out in front of them.

"No!" The Doctor yelled, realizing what Rose was doing. "Don't you _dare_, Rose! Don't!"

Rose rushed forward, with her hands braced in front of her and collided hard with the Kraddaw chest that appeared at the door. She looked back at her Doctor as she felt the searing, burning agony of the blaster ripping through her lower abdomen.

"Doctor!"


	11. Explosions

A/N: You will notice that a total of about 11 chapters have suddenly vanished from this fic. Yes. They have. That was deliberate.

I have torn this apart and am doing a complete and utter rewrite (with occasional cannibalism from the discarded chapters where necessary) of everything beyond chapter ten. Why? Because I got a feral case of writer's block with it, and realized just why and how that suddenly happened. It was because I didn't run with my initial idea ... I went ahead and wrote something completely different to what my muse had originally given me. (Well aside from the first 2/3rd of this chapter, which kept, so you may be familiar with the beginning bit.)

This rectifies that problem.

At least I hope it does.

I seem to be faltering a little on the writing front recently ... not pumping out any decent work ... gotto get out of the funk, dude ... be all groovy like and creative, man!...

I hope you enjoy the new direction. (Before you point out the corny ending here and ask "was that intentional?" Let me answer: Yeah .. it is ... and I make no apology for that!)

~~oooOOOooo~~

The guttural cry that erupted from deep inside the Time Lord was a sound that was terrified, mortified, panicked and definitely non-human. It was a sound so intensely haunted and defeated, yet still melodious and wondrously ancient. There would be no way, no how, that such a sound could be made from the vibrations of a human larynx.

It was a sound that the two women in the command room would never ever forget, and one that they would never want to hear again … Although Rose Tyler knew without a doubt that she would hear it over and over again until death claimed her.

As she tumbled down into the distraught Gallifreyan man's arms all she could do in response was to gurgle his name in his native tongue. She managed to quietly choke out four syllables of melody that immediately drew tears from the Doctor's ancient eyes.

"Rose," he whimpered helplessly against her temple in a voice with absolute and unbidden despair. "Why did you do it? You knew what was coming. You saw it happen. Why?"

"To save her," Rose moaned through her pain.

He clutched her weakening body to his chest and buried his face into her shoulder. He completely ignored the movement of the Kraddaw that was readying in to kill again. "You didn't have to do it, Rose. There was another way." He inhaled shakily. "There's _always_ another way."

"But, she's safe, Doctor." She coughed a rattling sound that drew blood into her mouth. It leaked in a thick orange-crimson line from the very edge of her lips. "Nancy's gonna be okay. That's all that matters, yeah?"

How could he agree or even disagree with that and not come across as a complete prat? He made do with nodding, shaking his head, and rocking the two of them together. "Hold on, Rose. Just hold on for me, okay?"

There was a gasp from the doorway and Rose's name was spoken with quiet terror. The Doctor lifted his head and blinked free the tears that were damning in his eyes. When he caught sight of Jack standing half in and half out of the room, his eyes pinched and he shook his head sadly.

"Help me, Jack." He shuddered, both in body and voice. "For the love of Rassilon, please help me."

Jack gaped at the sight of a wounded Rose Tyler in the Doctor's arms. Before he could even begin to try and comprehend what he was seeing, he rounded on the large alien beast. His voice thundered as he narrowed a furious glare on the Kradaw. "You mother-fuckin' sonovabitch!" He gave a booming roar of utter devastation that shattered every heart inside the room. A gun blast followed, and then the wet thud of a large humanoid body to the ground.

Jack swayed and then staggered as he let his gun fall with a loud metallic clang to the metal flooring. He dropped helplessly to his knees beside the Doctor and Rose. "What happened, Doc? What the _hell_ happened?"

The Doctor raised a tear streaked face from Rose's shoulder. His expression was one of absolute helplessness. "She _knew_, Jack. Rose _knew_ that the guard was going to fire. She saw it, yet she still ran in."

Nancy dropped to her knees beside Rose and the Doctor on the opposite side to Jack. "She saved me," she whimpered with a shake of her voice and a wet sniff. "If Rose hadn't run in my place, it would've been me that got shot."

The Doctor clutched Rose tighter against him and rocked the two of them in a slow and constant rhythm. "She knew that, Nancy. Rose saw it happen." He inhaled a shuddering breath that wobbled his lower lip. "There. There was a time-jump. We saw Nancy get shot by the Kradaw." His sodden eyes shifted with focus almost pleading to Nancy. "She ran in because she knew that you were going to die. She's giving her life for you."

"That's our Rosie," Jack muttered quietly as he stroked Rose's hair. "Can't stand to see anyone else get hurt."

"Oh you lot," Rose managed with a hoarse whispering laugh. "Make me sound like a bloody saint, you do."

"Oh Rose. You're so much more than that," the Doctor said tearfully. "So so much more."

Rose writhed in his hold in search of escape. "You've got to go," she ordered firmly. "All of you. You have to get out of here." She crawled out of the Doctor's hold and cried out at the pain in her belly that his release caused. "Oh God."

He reached for her instantly. "C'mere Rose. Come back to me. Let me take you to the TARDIS. There has to be some way for us to fix this."

She smiled a weak and almost pathetic smile. "Care to cross your own timestream, Doctor?"

His brows pinched tightly together. "If I have to, Rose." He whimpered as she groaned and moved to pull back from him. "Lt me get you into the medbay, Rose. I'm sure if I can get some scanners on you that we'll find a way to fix you right up."

She shrugged out of his hold and drew herself to an unstable stand. "No," she said with a soft shake of her head. "We both know there's no surviving this. I'm done. There's nothing even the TARDIS can do now."

"Don't say _nothing_," the Doctor growled with frustration. "There's always _something._"

"You're wasting time," she warned. "You guys get back to TARDIS, and I'll start the flight sequence from here. By the time they realize that something's afoot, you'll all be safe."

Nancy grabbed at the Doctor's sleeve. "Maybe we should listen to her."

He spun on her. "_What_? Do you honestly believe that I'd actually _leave_ her here?"

Jack was in total agreement with the Doctor – which, for the record he would vehemently deny until his actual dying day – and took Rose's hand in his. "We don't leave anyone behind. You hear that, Rosie. Noone. Whether you think you're going to make it or not, you're coming with us."

"Okay," she acquiesced with a nod as she staggered toward the console. "Just let me…" She stumbled hard against the console, but was caught in the Doctor's grasp. "Think you have it in you to carry me back to TARDIS?"

"It'd be my honour," he promised wetly against her ear as he took her shaking hand and moved it toward the enter key on the keyboard that would start the new flight commands. He looked toward Jack. "Did you do it?"

"Set half this ship to explode, you mean?"

The Doctor gave a nod. "Did you?"

"This thing will half blow to smitherines as soon as it's out of Earth's radar." He folded his arms across his chest. "Timer's linked to your command key. As soon as the NAV senses its location is out of orbit, TARDIS will send the explosive solutions to send them back to Kraddaw in flames."

The Doctor closed his eyes and nodded. "Good." He inhaled a few deep breaths, not mindless to the fact that there would be death on board this ship related to the explosion. Part of him thought they deserved it. "Good."

Rose's face creased into a light grimace to the Doctor's grave and furious words. "Doctor," she drawled with a slight slur in her voice. "Don't be like that. This isn't you."

"It is," he corrected as he slipped an arm down underneath her thighs to draw her up into his arms and against his chest. "It is more _me_ than the man you think you know."

"I thought I made you a better man than that."

He inhaled to reply, but ended up grunting out a sound of exertion as Rose's body suddenly convulsed inside his hold. He stumbled helplessly as she released a sound of agony and slammed his hip into the console. Rose's arm flailed outward, crashing down onto the keyboard. Quickly, the entire console erupted into a shower of bright orange and blue sparks than rained down over both Rose and the Doctor.

"No," he moaned quickly as he crushed a wailing Rose Tyler into the pit of his stomach by folding over her to survey the damage. "No, no no no."

"What's wrong?" Jack hollered as he leapt over the pool of deep crimson blood on the floor and jogged to the console. "What's going on?"

"We've lost connection to the TARDIS," the Doctor answered gruffly. He panted as his eyes quickly scanned the console computer to see if there would be any way for him to salvage their connection – and therefore their plan to escape. "We can't… Yes, maybe? No. Not by remote means…"

Jack cursed under his breath and half-shouldered the Doctor out of the way to make his own assessment of the situation at hand. His hands hovered over the humming console as he searched for a way – any way – for them to be able to remote in their explosive commands.

"How bad is it?" Rose questioned worriedly. "Tell me you're going to be able to get it to work again? No big deal, yeah? You and the Doctor. You can do anything."

Jack grimaced and threw her an apologetic look. "I really don't want lie to you, Rosie."

She whimpered against the Doctor's lapel when Jack didn't expand on that. "Oh, God. All this… for _what_?"

The Doctor whispered a light comforting sound against her hair, and then turned to hand her to Jack. The pained crease of his brows as he set Rose in his arms let Jack know what the Doctor's back up plan was.

He shook his head. "Doc. No. Please."

The Doctor pressed his lips into Rose's hair and held his lips there as he lifted his eyes to look at Jack. The Doctor didn't need to speak for him to know that there wasn't going to be any argument.

…of course that wasn't going to stop Jack giving it his best shot at it.

"You're not doing this," Jack argued as the Doctor slowly walked back to the damaged console and started poking at random buttons. "I won't let you."

The Doctor's eyes flicked up angrily. "Someone has to," he argued hotly. His eyes fell to Rose, laid in Jack's arms with her eyes closed. "I need you to get Rose into the TARDIS. Now. Save her life for me. Please."

"My name's not _Doctor_," he snapped in reply. "I don't know the first thing about dealing with field injuries when it's just a splinter." He gestured to Rose with his chin. "This is a bit more than your average boo-boo, Doc. If Rose has any hope at all its at your hand. Not mine. She needs _you_ if she's going to pull through."

The Doctor loudly thumped his fist on the console. "Dammit, Jack. Don't argue with me. Get Rose to the TARDIS before she dies in your arms." He sniffed as he looked back at the console. "I'll make sure that she'll have a planet to wake up to … when she wakes."

"Bullshit," Jack muttered dryly through a curled lip.

The Doctor's eyes flicked furiously toward him. "What did you say?"

"I said _bullshit_," Jack repeated in the very same tone he'd used to originally recite the word in the first place. "And I'm calling it. On you. And on your sudden little suicide mission here."

The Doctor's eyes flicked back to the console.

"You know that she's not going to make it. Don't you?"

The Doctor dropped his chin to his chest. "She's already in hypovolemic shock," he said on little more than a whisper. "I don't need the scanner to know she's suffered non-repairable damage to her liver and pancreas…"

"And, _what_," he interrupted with a snarl. "And because you don't want to live in a universe where Rose Tyler is dead, you're going to erase yourself from it?"

"This _has_ to be done," the Doctor seethed through his teeth. "Noone else can do it and have any kind of chance of surviving it." He huffed. "I at least have a chance."

"I have a better one than you," he argued.

The Doctor let out a lon and low growl. "Why don't you stop arguing like a damn woman and do as I say. Get Nancy and Rose onto the TARDIS and get clear of this ship." He inhaled hard. "Am I making myself clear?"

Jack narrowed his eyes at him. "Be careful, Doc. Your _Nine_ is starting to show."

"I said go!" he growled in response. He looked back to the console and clawed his fingers into the corner of it in an attempt to calm himself down a little. "Blimey. Why do humans always have to argue and make everything do bloody difficult?"

"Because," Nancy answered from somewhere over his shoulder. "Sometimes we actually know better than the Time Lord does." She exhaled a disappointed breath. "Come on, Jack. Let's at least get Rose comfortable."

"Yeah," he answered hoarsely. "Let's go then, because…" He stopped talking as Rose curled her fingers around the zipper of his jacket and tugged for his attention.

"Ja… ck" She gurgled and coughed as she tried desperately to say his name. "Plea … se."

Jack lifted her higher against his chest and lowered his ear to her mouth. He didn't even flinch at the light splatter of warm blood that wet his ear as she whispered against it. It was a long ten seconds of spit and whisper, but finally he pulled back from Rose and looked down at her with an expression of pure agony.

The pair seemed to communicate only by slow blinks over the next few seconds as Jack's expression shifted through question, denial, sorrow, and acceptance.

"Left?" he finally asked softly.

Rose nodded. "Left, Jack."

"Okay."

"Make…" She coughed. "Make it count, yeah?"

"I always do." He kissed at her forehead as he took her to the Doctor. His glare on the weary Time Lord was one of disgust as he set Rose's feet on the metal flooring and steadied her against the console. "Before you take the coward's path," he growled. "At least let her say a decent goodbye to you."

The Doctor nodded slowly and angled himself in such a way that he both guarded the console and could steady Rose at the same time. He leaned forward to press his lips hard against her forehead. "I'm so sorry, Rose," he vowed emotionally without removing his lips from her forehead. "I'm so sorry."

"Me too," she admitted. She lifted her head to try and coax his mouth from her forehead.

His lips did detatch from her forehead and he lowered his head to press his forehead against hers. His voice was horrifically broken when he spoke next. "I-I love you, Rose."

"I love you, too, Doctor."

He sucked in a tight breath, a reversed hiss, and curled both lips in a grimace of an expression. "I will _always _love you," he vowed vehemently. "Always, Rose. _Never_ forget that."

"And _you _never forget that I love you," she replied passionately. Her eyes flicked over his shoulder, where Jack was on a slow approach. "_Never_ forget that, Doctor. Never…"

Rose managed to shove herself off him just in time for her shoulder to avoid a hard blow from the steel pipe that swung through the air to collide with the Doctor's left shoulder. There was a loud thud of impact, and then the shuffle of the Doctor's shoes as he staggered to one side and then fell to a knee. He didn't bother to clutch at his arm to try and settle the searing pain, nor look toward the man who had administered the blow.

"What have you done?" he questioned with a voice accusing her of outright betrayal. He dropped onto his hip, and then onto his back. "Rose. Why would you do this?"

Jack loomed over him with arms folded across his chest as the last moments of consciousness blinked through the Doctor's fluttering eyes. "She didn't do it, Doc. I did." He dropped to a knee at the Doctor's side and leaned down to check on the Time Lord's vitals as he finally succumbed to unconsciousness.

"Damn," he remarked with surprise. "I honestly didn't think that was going to work."

"Don't think he won't learn from this and find a way to prevent you ever being able to do it again," Rose warned with more vigour in her movements than she'd shown only seconds before. She panted, coughed, and then spat out a mouthful of blood. "Gross."

She clutched at her stomach, covering the gaping wound with only her forearm as she stumbled toward and followed the sequence of taps performed by the Doctor moments earlier. "I'll set the initiating explosive sequence with a ten second delay before I activate the self-destruct protocols. From there the sequence will initiate immediately." She swallowed thickly, winced at the iron taste inside her mouth and then sniffed a wet inhale. She cast her eyes to Jack. "Will that be enough time for you to get the TARDIS clear?"

He dropped onto a knee and grabbed at the Doctor's arm to slide the unconscious Time Lord up across his shoulders. "TARDIS is a decent fifteen second jog from here. Being that I have this heavy lump on my shoulders, you might want to give me at least thirty before you initiate the countdown."

Rose couldn't help but shudder emotionally. "Jack," she said fearfully. "I'm scared."

He was of half the mind to drop the man on his shoulders to the floor in order to offer Rose some physical comfort.

"But I'll be okay, you know," she continued bravely. She sniffed and placed a trembling hand on the console. "Look after him, Jack." She smiled. "And look after _you_."

He gave her a trembling smile of his own and leaned down to press his lips wetly against hers. He rolled his jaw singly in a cheeky request to deepen it, but pulled back before Rose could react in any way. "I love you, Rosie."

"Love you too, Jack."

"I wish you weren't our only choice to do this." He sniffed back his tears. "How about I dump him in the TARDIS, and you and me go out together, yeah?"

"No, Jack." She could see his eyes shift rapidly in contemplation of several potential escape ideas and quickly pressed her hand against her chest. "You and him," she gestured to the Doctor. "Are worth dying for. You know that?"

"That's my line."

She chucked only the once before she had to fold in on herself in agony at her body shutting down organ by organ.

"Rose!"

Her head shot up. "Go, Jack. Please." She panted. "I'm so cold now … I really don't know how much time I've got."

"Rose," he pleaded, hoping for one last possible escape option.

"This is it, Jack. Love you. Please. Go."

He dipped in to press his lips against her cheek and whispered his own affections to her before taking off in a run to the doorway. "Come on, Nancy. It's now or never, girl. Allons-y!"

"Allon-what?"

Rose smiled as the pair took off with the Doctor safely held across Jack's shoulder. Although it wanted to falter, she held onto that smile for as long as she could while she let her fingers dance across the keyboard. The thirty-second countdown that Jack had requested slowly counted down in her head.

She didn't immediately notice as her hands began to shimmer in a flow like blood along her veins. Her waning focus was locked tight on her countdown, and on the monitor of the console, with images and data that kept blinking in and out of view with a static shake and pop.

Finally, however, she looked down to press the big, red, button that would begin the destruct sequence. As she palmed the button so that it sat in the hollow of her palm, she saw the crawling amber energies course against her hands from finger tips to wrist.

She panted as she found herself suddenly able to stand upright without pain. She held both hands in front of her and twisted them left and right, palm to back to palm again as the glow increased to light.

"What's happening to me?" She asked the empty command deck as she opened her arms and followed the growing trail of amber light with her eyes at it moved up into her chest.

Below her feet the metal flooring began to rumble with the series of explosions that were firing in a progressive line thoughout the ship. She staggered only slightly as each explosion drew closer and the rumbling at her feet increased.

There was a flash from beyond the doorway, a rolling ball of flame, and then a blast of superheated air. Rose turned to the console and felt the flames catch upon her hands and her head.

She tossed her head backward as her entire body erupted into hot amber flames and called out the only word she knew could give her comfort in a time like this.

"Doctor!"

~~oooOOOooo~~

On the jagged grated floor of the TARDIS console room, the Doctor suddenly stirred. There was light in his eyes as he suddenly shot up to a seat beside a coral strut and called out a cry of his own.

"Rose!"


	12. A Tickle in his Mind

A/N: If you're wondering why I took this route you only have to consider what handling a grieving, irate, murderous, betrayed Time Lord might be like.

Not pretty...

Jack - immortal though he may be - wouldn't survive it. the Doctor is tricky enough that he'd be able to concoct some way to be able to put him down for good ... So I opted for this instead.

I hope you enjoy...

Thanks to those of you who encourage me with a comment on this or any one of my fics! It truly is the best way to drown out the old writers, block, eh? I'm glad you read, thrilled you enjoyed, and appreciate the messages!

~~oooOOOooo~~

Jack Harkness watched the Doctor cry out for Rose with guarded and cautious eyes. What Rose had asked him to do – what he had agreed to do – was without a doubt a betrayal to the Time Lord. He wasn't going to deny that. But they really had no other choice. Rose Tyler's last wish was for the Doctor to live and carry on protecting the universe like he had done for nearly a millennia.

Cad though he may be, Jack Harkness was also a chivalrous man. He was not against holding open a door for a pretty girl. He'll offer his jacket to a woman trembling with cold and hold her to warm her up. He'll run to the passenger side of a vehicle to open the door for her and offer his hand to help her out. He will stand in her place to defend her honour…

… And he would never, ever, deny a pretty girl her last wish and desire as she leaves the universe behind her to ascend to the heavens. Especially when that girl is Rose Tyler.

He knew beyond all doubt that the repercussions of their actions were going to be something that would ring out across the entire multiverse. He was willing to face it all head-on, though. This was what Rose Tyler wanted, and he would damn well make sure that the Time Lord carried on as he always had.

…That didn't mean that he wasn't at all frightened about facing down a furious Time Lord. Truth of it was that he was terrified, and a terrified Jack Harkness was not a pretty boy.

He swallowed thickly as the Doctor slowly roused past the desperate dream-like wail that had exploded through the TARDIS console room. He watched as the Time Lord grimaced in confusion for a moment as he tried to get his bearings.

"Welcome back, Doc," Jack managed with forced joviality.

The Doctor held up a finger to ask a moment. He slapped his tongue against the roof of his mouth a couple of times and maintained his perplexed expression as he looked around himself. "Why?" he began, only to cut himself off to shake his head in bewilderment. Finally, he lifted his head to Jack.

"What happened, Jack? And why did I just wake up on the floor of my TARDIS?"

Jack twisted his neck just slightly to offer the Doctor a wary look. His voice was equally cautious. "What's the last thing you remember?"

The Doctor's right eye twitched lightly. "I really don't know," he muttered with surprise as his left hand shot up to his head to rigorously scratch his nails at a spot on the back of it. He slowed his scratching, and offered Jack a wide-eyed look. "And _that's_ saying something. Not often that I can say that, now. What, with my brilliant mind knowing just about everything there is to know about, well, anything, really." He snorted and lifted a brow. "And you'd probably know that it's rather less likely than that, that I'll even make that admission."

Jack gestured toward where the Doctor was scratching his head with a flick of his eyes. "What's wrong, Doc? Get a bump on your head?"

The Doctor removed his hand from the back of his head and looked at the offending hand with a light knit of his brows. When he sighed and looked back to Jack with a wince that contracted half of his face, the hand went straight back to scratching.

"I don't believe so," the Doctor answered after a moment. "A blow to the head usually leaves me with a dull-to-searing ache. This is more of an annoying tickle. An itch."

"I see…"

"Me scratching at it seems to be a non-voluntary response, really," the Doctor continued with a sigh as he shifted his eyes to the elbow that was effectively seated on his cheek. "The tickle really isn't on my head as much as it is _in_ it. A telepathic tickle? Yes? Perhaps. Think of how a house fly bats its body against at a window for escape. That's what's happening in my mind."

He chuckled to himself as he leaned his back against the coral strut behind him and lifted a knee to lay his forearm across the top. "A fly buzzing around in the nothingness of my mind."

"I wish I had a recorder on me to record you saying that, Doc," Jack mused. He was trying to fall back on his sharp sense of humour and joviality to forget the last few hours, but was struggling to do so.

"The _nothingness _I refer to, Captain," the Doctor continued with a sigh as he let his scratching hand fall from his head into his lap. "Is the gigantic telepathic hole that the destruction of my planet left." He huffed out. "A great. Big. Gaping. Hole." He inhaled and held his breath for a long moment, and then exhaled it forcibly. "Not in my superior intelligence. Let's not get confused by that. There're no holes in that. Nope. None. Nada."

"And where does your memory fall in, then?" Jack tapped his fingertip on his temple. "Because you seem to have a bit of a hole in that right now."

The Doctor pursed his lips. "Well that would be the limbic system in my medial temporal lobe, wouldn't it? So there is no _hole_. A hole there would cause a _whole_ lot of complications, wouldn't it?" He smirked. "There may be a small tiny little misfire in the processes which are currently trying to decode the sensory information to reconstruct the last hour or so, but no hole." He scratched again at the back of his head. "It'll all come back to me soon enough."

"Probably best it doesn't," Jack muttered under his breath. If the Doctor's last image of Rose was of her bubbly, flirty, brilliant self, then it should be kept that way. Unfortunately for Jack, her paling, bloody, weakened image would be forever seared into _his_ mind.

"What was that, Jack?"

Jack shook his head. "Nothing, Doc. Nothing at all." He stumbled as the TARDIS gave a rough landing and materialization and found himself having to grip hard on the console to maintain his balance. "Looks like we hit ground," he muttered. He petted the pulsing rotor column. "Better landing than when he's at the helm, eh, girl?" he teased with a flick of his head in the Doctor's direction. "I think you and me make a beautiful couple."

The Doctor grunted. "Really, Jack? Are you _really_ making moves on my TARDIS? Are there _any_ females in this universe safe from your advances?" He rubbed at the back of his head and looked away from him to add: "Or males for that matter?"

"Plenty," he answered with a shrug. "Rampant though I may appear, I do have discerning tastes."

"I'm sure you do," the Doctor sighed. He scratched at his head again. "So what am I missing? Anything worth recalling?" He frowned. "And why are you flying my ship?" The frown deepened. "Better yet, _how_ are you flying my ship?"

"I think your TARDIS might have a crush on me," he ventured cheekily. "I'm not flying her as much as she's flying herself."

The Doctor's brow creased at that. With a grunt, he pressed his hand against the strut at his back to push himself up to a stand. He brushed off his thighs as he approached the console to investigate. He let his eyes trace over the current settings of each of the levers and dials and touched a finger to a button.

"Where's Rose?" he asked with feigned distraction.

"Oh," Jack answered, giving nothing further.

"She's on _Oh_," the Doctor echoed blandly. "I hope she's wearing fifty-thousand layers of heat shielding." He blinked to snatch his eyes to Jack. "Because Oh is a sun."

"Is it?" he peeped in response. "Didn't know that."

"You wouldn't," the Doctor muttered. He felt a swirl inside his head and swayed just lightly. There was a low ache in his left shoulder, not much, but enough to have him rub at it with his right hand. He looked at it with a curl in his brow. "How did I end up out cold on the floor of my TARDIS?"

Jack debated answering that with a carefully constructed lie. The Doctor didn't appear to remember it, and perhaps he wouldn't. Why hand over the noose if he didn't have to?

Of course, then he had to consider that the chances of the superior Time Lord mind finally managing to be able to recall the incident was higher than the chances of him permanently forgetting it. Lying to him about it would only serve to tighten the noose.

Jack let out a breath and lowered his voice to a quiet tone. "Doctor…"

He knew that tone. Oh indeed he did. The Doctor was a specialist at that tone of voice. _There's something I need to tell you and you're not going to like it_. He steeled himself by bracing his hands on the edge of the console.

"Jack. Tell me."

"Doc, before I fill you in, Promise me you won't have a fit."

His eyes flashed. "Well. That's a hard promise to make when I don't know…"

"You have to understand that it was necessary. That given the situation Rose and I thought it was the best – and only – choice we had."

Her absence and the heaviness in his hearts had the Doctor quickly looking around the console room for Rose Tyler. She wasn't there. In fact, neither was Nancy. He twisted his head to Jack. "Where are they? Rose. Nancy. Where are they?"

"Nancy's fine," Jack quickly assured him. "She's in her room here on the TARDIS. Resting, showering? I'm not quite sure what."

The Doctor swallowed. "And Rose?"

"Doctor…"

"Tell me she's on board, Jack," he demanded worriedly.

Jack closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. "I'm sorry, Doc. She." He panted a couple of times and let a shudder rock though him. "She didn't make it off the ship."

The Doctor stumbled against the console. "What?"

"I'm sorry, Doc," Jack apologized in a pleading voice. "She's gone."

"Gone _where_?" he whimpered pathetically, although he knew damn well what Jack was implying.

"Don't make me say it, Doc," Jack pleaded. "Please."

Jack didn't want to say the word, and the Doctor certainly didn't want to hear it. And while hearing _that word_ applied to his Rose Tyler was the very last thing he wanted to hear, the Doctor did have to query the _how_ of it. He passed a dry swallow over an equally dry tongue and shuddered as he looked up to Jack.

"How?" He managed in about as broken a voice as Jack had ever heard on any man. "What happened?"

"Kradaw attack," Jack answered carefully. Slowly. Quietly. "She was fatally wounded. There was no possible way to save her."

"Is her…" He gulped back a heartbroken sob. "Did we bring her back here?"

Jack shook his head. "We couldn't." He inhaled a shaking breath through a gaped mouth and looked to the ceiling of the TARDIS. He panted a pair of ragged inhales and closed his eyes. "There wasn't time."

The Doctor turned on him immediately, his eyes flaring with fury. "_Never_ tell a Time Lord that he doesn't have time," he said with a snarl. "Especially not where the safety of those closest to me are concerned."

"It was an impossible decision, Doc," Jack defended, lifting his hands in a defensive motion of surrender. "Rose and I had to make a call, and this was the _only_ call we _could_ make given the situation."

"_What_ decision?" The Doctor asked on an even-yet-angry tone. "What are you talking about? What call?"

Jack winced and turned his head from the Doctor. He let his words tumble from his lips quietly and full of regret and sadness. "It was you or her, Doc. She was already fatally wounded. You knew it. I knew it. There was nothing left and no other decision that we could make in that situation." He exhaled and then inhaled hard. "You have to believe me, Doc. Rose. Rose wanted it this way."

The Doctor's eyes were wide and his brows high and he lowered his face to stare blindly at the console to try and remember what had happened. He rubbed absently at his aching left shoulder. "But how…?" He suddenly looked to his shoulder. In a flash everything seemed to fall into place. The ache. The unconsciousness. The memory lapse.

He dropped his hand and spun on the grating. "Who did it," he growled as he stalked along the grating toward Jack. "Who delivered the blow that dropped me?"

"Well…"

"More to the point," the Doctor continued with a snarl. "How did you even know that to deliver a strike, _there_, that you'd drop me where I stood? That's not a weakness we Time Lords tend to make public knowledge." He stood face to face with a man shorter only by hair height and sneered into his face. "You'll never get an opportunity to do that again, Harkness."

Jack lifted his chin with just a slight skew as to attempt to stand tall as arrogantly as possible against the Doctor. "I hope I don't ever need to."

"Get out of my TARDIS," he seethed finally.

"No."

The Doctor blinked. "Pardon me?"

"I said no," Jack repeated. "Rose pleaded for me to look after you and make sure that you didn't go out and do something stupid. I'm holding the promise I made to her that I would."

"I said leave," the Doctor repeated.

"And I said _no_." He snorted, finding courage in arrogance – and the fact that even if the Doctor did strike out and kill him, he'd only return to life seconds later. "Like it or not, Doc. I'm staying for the next little while."

The Doctor's eyes pinched tight. "You knocked me out using the most underhanded trick in the entire universe, left Rose Tyler to die alone on an alien ship, and you expect me to just accept you as a passenger on my ship?"

Jack gave a firm nod. "That's right. I do." He swallowed thickly and levered his head back just slightly to take the sting out of the Doctor's glare. "And whether you think it now or not, you need me to stay."

The Doctor snorted a superior laugh. "I think you'll find, Harkness, that I don't _need_ anyone."

"I think that you'll find you do," Jack corrected him. He put his hand on the Doctor's shoulder and refused to let it go even when the Time Lord flinched and snarled. "I'm not leaving."

"Why not," the Doctor growled. "You left _her_."

Jack's hand flexed and then gripped tighter at the Doctor's shoulder. His voice was a low warning. "I had no choice. It was you or her, and Doc, she was already lost."

"The TARDIS…"

"_Nothing_," he growled. "Nothing was going to save her. "You know that, and you were willing to sacrifice yourself because of it."

The Doctor's eyes narrowed in challenge. "Then why didn't you let me do it?"

"Because she wanted you to live," Jack answered with steel in his voice to shield out the despair. "She didn't give her life in your place, Doc. She gave her life to save your companion. Nancy needs you to stick around, and So do I … because _damn you_, Doctor. I can't lose both of you in one day."

He stilled at Jack's declaration and nodded in agreement. "Did I even get to tell her, Jack? Did I? Did she know?"

Jack nodded. "She loves you too, Doc."

"You aren't forgiven," the Doctor stated quietly. He turned away from him at that moment and inhaled though an open mouth, unable to breathe through his stuffy nose. His hand moved to scratch at his head again. "Blimey, Jack. What're we going to tell Jackie?"

"Leave that mess to Torchwood to deal with," Jack answered with a wince. "She was on the job when it happened."

The Doctor shook his head and exhaled. He thrust his hands into his trouser pockets and began a slow lumbering stride toward the doors of the TARDIS. "We both owe it to Jackie to tell her ourselves." He tipped his head to the doorway. "Where'd you land us then?"

"Directly below the location of the Kradaw ship," Jack answered. He then sniffed and shrugged. "I don't really know how to fly this old thing, Doc. I know up and down, materialize and dematarialize."

"Takes a few centuries to get the hang of it," the Doctor answered quietly. He pressed his hand on the door and inhaled deeply. "I've had this old girl for seven hundred years…"

"And you still don't know how to fly her right."

The Doctor managed to tip the corner of his mouth into a smile. "Quite right, Jack." He rubbed at the doorway and smiled weakly. "But we always manage to get where we need to go. Right, old girl?"

"And now," Jack breathed as he leaned forward to press his hand into the door to open it, seeing the Doctor seemed particularly reluctant to do so himself. "Now you can keep learning. Thanks to Rose."

"Yeah," he breathed out brokenly.

Jack pushed open the doors and both men gasped in horror at the scene on the other side.

"Oh-Kay," the Doctor breathed with horrified awe in his tone. "What did I miss?"

~~oooOOOooo~~

It looked like the entire city had collapsed into itself. Fire roared and thumped and spat all around them. Buildings were demolished, reduced to large masses of unrecognizable rubble and twisted metal. Smoke wound itself thickly around every curve and corner in a fluffy, shifting blanket that pulsed negative hues against the flashing red, white, and blue lights of the emergency vehicles that loudly growled and wailed at every possible open point.

The Doctor couldn't help by moan out in despair at the scene before him. "What?" He locked his eyes on a twisted and gnarled sheet of metal as he shook his head. "What?"

"Holy hell," Jack muttered to himself. "She mustn't have been able to get the ship out to a safe distance…"

"Tell me there was some kind of evacuation," the Doctor pleaded in a whisper. "We have to have lost at least five city blocks here."

"Six," Jack corrected with a gulp. He nodded toward a pair of towers that leaned precariously against each other a short distance away. "That's six blocks from here, Doc." His eyes were locked on the two defeated glass and metal structures. "This is massive."

The Doctor remained still for a moment as he took in the surrounding carnage. His eyes fell on a twisted and stretched body of metal that proudly displayed the insignia of the Kradaw army. "Rose," he whispered to himself, wondering if … if it might be at all possible that his precious girl might be in there somewhere – if there was some way that he'd be able to take her home to her mother?"

He shifted to move forward and found himself halted in place by Jack's the back of Jack's hand against his chest.

"No, Doc," he warned gently. "It's unstable out there. Dangerous."

The Doctor looked down at Jack's hand. He kept his head low, but lifted his eyes to look up at him. "Danger tends to be the playground we play best in, Jack." He then hissed and snapped his hand to the back of his head to scratch vigorously at it. "I swear Rassilon, Harkness, I'm going to bring you to your knees for knocking me out."

Jack slid his eyes toward the Doctor, but chose not to say anything. He really didn't need to.

"Not like that," the Doctor growled with a huff. "Try to be at least a little despairing. We just lost our best friend…"

"The woman we love," Jack corrected. "And trust me, I am completely destroyed by it. If I wasn't I would've commented on your little slip for sure." He thumbed at his nose. "It's not my fault that your mind wanders south much like mine does."

"Hardly," the Doctor mumbled through a curled lip as he continued to scratch.

"Are you okay," Jack finally commented with a face contorted in almost disgust at the Doctor's incessant scratching. "Have you picked up some kind of alien bug that's nesting in your hair or…"

"I told you," he interrupted firmly. "That it's an internal itch. Not my scalp.."

"Telepathic," Jack ventured with a shrug.

"Exactly," the Doctor answered. "It's a tickle in the space vacated by my people so .. so long …" He only managed to sound out the A of the next word before his words faltered and his scratching stopped. "Oh. Noooooo." He breathed with doubt. "It can't be."

"What's that?" Jack queried quickly, immediately on alert. "What's wrong?"

The Doctor held up his hand to ask for quiet. He kept that hand held up as he lowered his head and closed his eyes. He slowed his breathing and slowly rocked his head side to side in concentration on everything around him. After a short moment of him doing this, the Doctor raised his head and inhaled a long and deep breath. His eyes blinked two and then three times before he opened his mouth to breathe out a single four-syllable word.

"Impossible."

Jack's brows twitched and then came together in puzzlement. "What's up, Doc?" He let out a breath. "On any other day I'd fist-pump that I was able to actually say that."

The Doctor stepped forward and around the front of the TARDIS, seeing without looking as to what was lurking close by them. He inhaled. He tasted the air with his tongue. He shifted his hear to see if he could hear sounds that weren't specific to the crash site.

"I can feel you," he whispered softly. "Don't be scared. I'm the last person who will ever do you any harm."

Jack maintained the furrow in his brow as he followed the Doctor's erratic movements through the rubble and toward a destroyed plaza of stores. "Doc. Doc, wait. What are you doing?"

"She's here," the Doctor answered almost distractedly. "Oh, and she's beautiful, Jack. Simply beautiful."

Jack straightened himself to take a look through the swirling smoke in search of what the Doctor had picked up. "I don't see anyone, Doc," he muttered as he lifted his hand to put a visor over his eyes to shield out some of the smoke. "What've you found? What other kind of alien are you sensing out here?"

"You're so young," the Doctor rambled to himself. "Aren't you? And already regenerated… Oh. I'm so sorry. You don't understand who you are, yet, do you? Weeellll. How could you? Anyone who could teach you is long gone…"

"Doctor," Jack pressed. He was beginning to worry. "What's going on?"

"Oh, it's been so long," the Doctor said softly. "So long since I've had someone reach out to me like this. Jack." He opened his eyes and looked to his friend. "We have to find her. We've got to get to her before anyone else does."

"Who, Doc?" Jack questioned with mild frustration. "Tell me who and we can look for her."

"Time Lord," the Doctor began. He then furrowed his brows and shook his head at himself. "Well. Time Lady, I should say."

"But…"

"I know, Jack," he continued. "I know they're all supposed to be gone. And I believed that, because my mind.." He inhaled. "It's been so quiet for so long. I couldn't begin to believe that any of them survived."

"Oh, Doc…"

"She's alone, Jack," he stated flatly. His voice shifted from awed to determined. "She's terrified. I can feel her fear and her confusion. In here," he tapped at his head. "That's why it's been irritating me like this. I couldn't properly interpret the feeling. How could I? I thought they were all dead." He looked at Jack. "But there's one out there. One of my people. And I'm going to find her."


	13. Arkytior

A/N: ***Revised*** Heavy edit on Jack and the Doctor. Our Time Lord wasn't reactive enough to the loss of his Rose... This, I hope makes sense of it.

Oh, I have no idea how this one is going to read to you guys ... I have these images inside my head and I so desperately want to get it down as accurately as possible. I might think I have it ... but then again... I know what I'm trying to say. I can't imagine it will come across that flawlessly.

Warning that this is a little on the darker side of things. No fluff and happiness here ...

I sinceriously hope you enjoy this. I'm actually a little timid about this chapter because I've strayed from my norm ..

~~oooOOOooo~~

She came to with a deep gulping gasp that ended with her coughing inside the dusty confines of … well … confined to _what_, she wasn't quite sure.

A struggling domed light that shifted between sparking aggressively and glowing dully down near her feet gave Rose Tyler a slight insight into her surroundings. It was metal. That much was immediately obvious. A metal housing held up by hot and twisted beams that arced only high enough for her to be able to sit up with a slouch in her back. There was no colour in the metal, it was down to its bare state and mottled with brown flakes oxidization.

She would have to remember not to shift around too much and get herself cut. Rose couldn't immediately recall the last time he'd had a tetanus booster shot. Possibly some time back in high school…

A large explosive sound from the distance boomed over her face and rattled down past her chest and arms. She felt a need to inhale a horrifically deep breath and felt immediately and uncomfortably cocooned inside a somewhat constricting Torchwood uniform. Surprising, that, as she did tend to wear her uniform at least 1-2 sizes too large for her.

Another blast and she shook that concern from her mind. Surely there were more important things to concern herself with right now than whether or not she needed to request a large uniform size and engage in some more intensive training regimes…

..Although…

She groaned at herself as she warily maneuvered to sit up inside her tiny enclosure. She took care to ensure that she weaved her head side to side to miss the rusted metal above her. It was only when she was seated properly upright and could twist her head left to right, up and down, that she fully took in her surroundings. While her eyes catalogued everything around her, her foggy mind worked through trying to remember the last moments before unconsciousness.

"Kradaw," her mind finally supplied. "Big ugly brutes who don't like Time Lords, and who love to invade unsuspecting planets for kicks."

Rose rubbed at her temple and winced as she tried harder to dig into the deepest recesses of her mind to figure out exactly what had happened and why Jack wasn't with her. There would be no way that Jack wouldn't be attached firmly at her side – he was far too protective of her to let her go about wandering on her own.

There was a sudden contraction in her belly that drew her completely in on herself, and the memories flooded forward. Images of she and Jack running side by side, of their capture, of the Doctor's well-timed arrival, of _his_ capture…

… of his declaration of love for her as he prepared himself for execution.

She whispered his name along a broken breath as she recalled his complete and utter devastation when she was struck down by the Kradaw's weapon. She could still feel the emotion inside his declaration as he reaffirmed his love for her with absolute reverence. He didn't know of the betrayer that stood beside him with a steel bar in hand and took him down at her request. Betrayal to his front and rear. The Doctor was cornered and he didn't even know it – not until the blow had been administered and he fell to his knees with an expression of confusion and hurt. For the rest of her life, Rose would never forget the look on his face when he realized what she and Jack had done to him.

Oh, but what other choice did they have, she and Jack? She was fatally wounded and was on the verge of death. It was the life of Rose Tyler, an insignificant human girl, versus the life of the Doctor, the last of the Time Lords. The choice was obvious. The universe needed the Doctor far more than it would ever need her.

Her shuddering breath drew in through an open mouth, and for a moment, Rose covered it in her hand to fight off the retch that her twisting gut was threatening her with. It hadn't yet occurred to her that the death that had been so insistently swimming before her eyes hadn't struck her down. The realization that the gaping wound she held in her belly had seamlessly knitted itself together hadn't struck, either.

Rose could focus on nothing other than the pain she'd seen inside the Doctor's fathomless eyes when he realized how she'd betrayed him. She was locked on tight to that image, ignoring all else. This level of distraction was nothing new. When the Time Lord captured her imagination, everything else fell by the wayside.

It was for this reason that Rose Tyler didn't notice movement a short distance away from her. She didn't register the hot prickling sensation that rushed up along her spine that came from that movement. Had she noticed, she may have been able to react before the brute was upon her and not been pinned to the ground underneath a wounded Kradaw soldier.

"Time Lord," he hissed into her face with enough hot breath and spittle to have Rose twist her head to the side in escape.

"Human," she corrected with a wince.

"Humans don't regenerate," he growled in reply.

Rose turned her head to sneer into his eyes. She had to hold back a shudder at the hollow look inside his black eyes. "Get off me," she choked out with far more disgust in her voice than outright fear. "You filthy, smelly, heavy gigantoid."

"Time Lord filth," he snarled again with a shift in his hip to draw his gun from its holster. "This time your mate won't come to your rescue."

Around her, somewhere, there had to be something that Rose could use as a weapon. She kept her eyes on the hateful beast that hovered atop her and swatted her hands on the floor at her side in search of something – anything – that could save her from this beast's wrath.

"Your mate is gone," he sneered in reply with a curl in his lip and a laugh in his breath. "The coward jumped into his time capsule and left you here to die."

"Is that what you think?" she answered coyly as her fingers circled around a cylindrical bar. "Time Lords are tricky creatures," she warned with a click of her tongue. He voice lowered to a whisper against the divot at the side of the Kradaw's head that she guessed was his ear. "How do you know that my mate isn't right behind you? Hmmmm?" She waited as the Kradaw stilled. "Didn't you know that Gallifreyan males are possessive of their mates to the point of lunacy?"

She let her eyes flick over the beast's shoulder. "Isn't that right, _darling_?"

The Kradaw exulted a roar and twisted his body quickly to fight off the threat that stood at his rear. With her chest now free of her attacker's grasp, Rose was able to shift and pull the metal bar tighter into her grasp. She released a thunderous cry of her own as she called on every single bit of strength she had within her to drive the bar into her attacker's left shoulder.

The Kradaw cried out and released his gun as he fell off to the side and clutched at the bar in his shoulder to try and pry it free of his wetly sucking, damaged shoulder. Rose wasted no time at all in retrieving his weapon, jamming it into his right shoulder, and pulling on the trigger.

The shot sounded out with a wet hissing pop that was too much like the sound of the lighting overhead for her to have considered it an effective and fatal hit. She held a cry in the back of her throat and shifted a slow, jerking snake-like motion in her shoulders to wriggle herself backward. Above her the beast lumbered a slow sway of imminent collapse, and with each movement of his massive form, Rose felt her stability falter. She held the gun up and released her cry in time with an unending pulsing curl of her fingers against the trigger. She continued pulling on that trigger long after draining it completely of energy, and only ceased her own cry when her lungs had been completely spent.

She kept wriggling backward, though. She shimmied almost violently on her back, twisting and rolling her shoulders until the very tip of her head met with the sunlight outside the room. It was only with the kiss of Earth's sun that she felt any level of safety and comfort from the beasts inside the machine, and with the name of the Christian Lord on her tongue, she rolled onto her belly, pushed onto her knees, then rose up into a stand to rush outside.

Rose ran without looking back at the hole through which she'd escaped. She ignored the flashing lights and bustling emergency personnel milling around the site. She may have mumbled something about not needing help as she collided hard with a young paramedic. As he took chase, she yelped and then swatted him off her like a terrified child running from a bully.

She wasn't going to stop for anyone. She wouldn't be able to. Rose could taste the epinephrine and cortisol that were rushing through her veins. Lindos – a chemical she could name, but didn't recognize from any of her biology books – swirled angrily across her muscles, violently shifting them into action. It was a reaction she could practically see; a golden sheen of sweat lifting up off her skin and spraying out from her gaped mouth.

She didn't stop running until she collided hard with a young Torchwood agent, a young man named Toby, who spent his days in records just dreaming of the day he'd be allowed out in the field.

Apparently today was that day.

Both Toby and Rose tumbled hard onto the floor. Rose winced as her wrist scraped hard along the bitumen road, and as she rolled onto her back and clutched her pained wrist in her hand, she cursed the heavens above that Torchwood were on the scene so quick.

"Ma'am," Toby cooed gently, but in a voice full of panic. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. Did I hurt you? Are you injured?"

Rose shook her head, but stammered out her partner's name, ending on the "K" as though the sound cut out her voice box.

"Jack?" Toby enquired curiously. "Harkness?"

Rose looked up at the lad and nodded. She hoped beyond all hope that she didn't sound as absolutely petrified as she did. "Where's Jack?"

Toby frowned a concerned crease in his brows and dropped his hand to help her to her feet. "He's safe last I heard. Why? Are you a girlfriend?"

Now it was Rose's turn to adopt the perplexed expression. "He's my partner."

Toby's eyes widened a second, then fell to a more relaxed state. He nodded with a purse in his lip. "Yeah. Right. That's the trendy term for it now, I get it." He released her hand and gave her an apologetic smile. "Didn't think Harkness was about commitment of any sort, but good for you. I'm Toby Evans." He held out his hand to her again. "You are?"

She tilted her head in confusion and shifted her gaze from his hand to his face. Toby knew who she was – she and Jack had taken this kid out for drinks once or twice. "I. I'm." She frowned fully and looked at him with a contorted expression of utter confusion. "You don't know me?"

Toby looked down at his hand that she'd left hanging, and then brought it up to rub at the back of his neck. "Nah. Sorry, Love. Jack's not really the type to discuss his personal life and those in it when he's on the job." He stopped rubbing his neck, but kept his hand in place while he gave her a sheepish look. "Which means I've never heard of you." His eyes flashed wide and he quickly held both hands out in front of him. "But that isn't to say that he doesn't think highly of you and all that. The man might tell endless stories and never shut about his hijinks, but get him on the personal level and he's a clam. Really he is. I'm sure he's as madly I love with you as he's promised you he is."

"Toby," she stammered unsurely. "I…"

"You're certainly his type, though, I gotto say," he continued nervously. "He's got a bit of a thing for gingers, I've heard. Okay, he likes blondes too, and brunettes I guess."

"Ginger?" Rose queried carefully. She inhaled as she let her eyes fall to her shoulder, and to the thick whorl of deep auburn hair that curled around the curve of her breast. She exhaled a gasping cough and jumped back, swatting at it like it was a gigantic spider.

"Ma'am," Toby called hurriedly. "Ma'am, are you okay? What is it?" He looked around desperately and petted his belt in search of a radio. "Lemme call Jack, yeah?"

Rose shook her head. "No. No. It's right. It's alright. Just…" She inhaled, then exhaled sharply. "Just though I saw a spider. A big, old scary spider." Her arm shook as she pointed blindly across the street. "I-I'll just go. Best get out of your way, yeah?"

"Might be smart," he offered with a smile. "It's not entirely safe 'round here." He gestured toward a row of ambulances to the right of them with a flick of his hand. "Go get yourself looked at, love. I'll let Jack know that you're okay."

Rose nodded quickly and stepped backward, stumbling on a lump of metal, but finding her balance quickly. "Good. That's a good idea. Cheers."

"What's your name," he called with a frown.

"Uh," Rose coughed out unsurely. She looked side to side and then back toward Toby. "I'm Ro – No. Arkytior. Tell him my name's Arkytior," she stammered out before turning on her heel. She didn't listen for him to acknowledge the name or try to repeat it in confirmation. Instead she ran again.

As she leapt over rubble and skidded around large jutting pieces of jiggered metal, Rose felt herself begin to panic. Her heart felt like it was galloping fast inside her chest. She could feel the quickening _thumpthump-thumpthump thumpthump-thumpthump_ hammering away at her ribs and wondered just at what point it was going to just stop completely. She could taste so many different flavours dancing across her tongue and – with horror – she found herself able to isolate each and every one of them. She could break them down to their chemical compounds and heighten each individual flavor as she did.

It was completely overwhelming. All she wanted to do was drop to the floor and drag her tongue across the filthy concrete to erase each and every single one of them. And while she was at it, find a way to grind down the sudden unusual sensation in her teeth. It was like someone had ripped out all of her old ones and replaced them with new. It was … _wierd_…

Rose suddenly did a half spin to skid sideways in the dirt. Her arm's splayed out either side of her to maintain her balance, and she remained in a high crouch as she recalled a similar sentiment shared with her not too long ago:

_"__New Teeth. That's weird…"_

Rose panted as she stilled in place. Cautiously she let her tongue swipe across the space between her lip and the front of her teeth, but pulled it back quickly at an alignment that was different to what she was used to. Her tongue moved as far back in her mouth as she could without gagging. It moved only when she felt the need to swallow, and she did so with a wince as he tongue settled back to its neutral position pressed up against an unfamiliar alignment of lower teeth.

With a wary and guarded shift of her eyes, Rose levied her gaze toward a shop window in hopes of catching her reflection to be assured that her worse fears were not going to be realized.

Rose didn't recognize any part of the woman that looked back from her in the reflection of the half-shattered shop window.

She was sure that her heart stopped beating inside her chest as she fell to her knees in the dirt and slowly shuffled toward her reflection. She held her shaking arms out in front of her as she walked on her knees toward the window, and breathed out a long sound of disbelief at the distraught and confused expression looking back at her.

It felt like an eternity as the reflected image mirrored her movements, her shaking, and her shifting expression of despair and confusion. Of course it wasn't. Her mind supplied her with a time frame that counted down to the nano second between falling to her knees, crawling, and then touching her hands against the hands held up by the mirrored image. She pressed forward, mere inches from the face of the unfamiliar woman, and took a moment to take in the red hair, the angular face peppered with light freckles and pink in the cheeks, and the intense green eyes that swirled with the movement of the universe itself.

Rose let out a whimper, and then a shaking cry that sifted into unbearable sobs as she finally collapsed against the image itself. Two women - twins to onlookers, strangers to each other – sat side by side, forehead against forehead, and dissolved into frightened sobs.

"My God," they whimpered together. "What's happened to me?"

~~oooOOOooo~~

A determined Time Lord was a difficult beast to contain and beg reason from, Jack Harkness learned quickly. Only moments after learning that the love of his lives had been lost in battle, the Doctor had pushed himself into a new mission with new parameters that served only to make him forget about his grief over the loss of Rose.

Jack couldn't fault him for it, really. Truth was, he wanted to do the exact same thing: Run headlong into the next assignment to keep his mind of anything and everything to do with Rose Tyler and how deeply her sacrifice had cut him. He was good at compartmentalizing, though. He could battle his way through it relatively unscathed.

The Doctor, however. Well. He could pretend to be as cold and unfeeling as he wanted to, Jack wasn't fooled. The Last of the Time Lords wore his hearts on either sleeve. His self-proclaimed _superior biology _just meant that the man felt things far deeper than any member of any species…

"Doc," Jack ventured carefully, after the Doctor had managed to twist them through yet another unproductive zig zag movement in their search pattern. "I get that this is important to you, and all, but.."

The Doctor paused briefly and shot Jack an irritated look. "But, _what_?"

Jack dropped his chin and shook his head slowly. After a long sigh he lifted his head only enough to look through his brows at the Doctor. "Throwing yourself straight out into it like this isn't healthy, you know."

The Doctor shuffled from foot to foot with obvious impatience. "Who says it isn't?"

"Doc. You just heard about Rose and…"

The Doctor's finger snapped up into his nose so quick that Jack went cross-eyed.

"You process it _your_ way, and I'll deal with my grief _my_ way."

"Are you grieving?" Jack asked softly.

"More than you can possibly comprehend." He looked away from Jack and grit his jaw tightly together. It wasn't until his dimple had deepened to a hollow that he released the clench of his jaw. He shifted his eyes from Jack and looked out across the rubble. "I've been through this more than anyone should ever have to. I've loved and lost and loved and lost again. It never hurts any less than any other time, but it gets easier to just bury it." He let out a breath. "To forget."

"You're full of shit, and you know it."

The Doctor pressed his lips tightly together in a wince and shook his head.

"I get it, you know," Jack pressed. "Outliving and losing people you love." He let his eyes latch onto the Doctor's indignant expression. "Been there, myself – in case you've forgotten. Granted I haven't lived as long as you have and experienced as many losses as you have…"

"Noone in this entire universe has experienced the losses I have," the Doctor argued sharply.

"Don't be too sure of that, Doc," Jack challenged calmly. "Gallifrey was not the only victim of the Time War. I've met plenty of beings that were displaced by that war – so don't think that you're anything special." He watched the Time Lord's eyes widen in realization and then quickly fall back to darkened arrogance. "You mightn't be anything special, Doc, but Rose was."

His face fell. "She was."

"So stop a moment," he pleaded. "Just stop for a moment and let it sink in. Give that amazing woman the thoughts and remembrance she deserves; then go run off half cocked on this search of yours."

"You don't understand," the Doctor gruffed petulantly.

"Stop accusing me of that," he snapped. "I understand it. I get it. I am living it right now. I don't want to race off across the damn country looking for trouble right now. My heart is in agony, and I want to have a few drinks and then fall apart."

The Doctor shook his head. "I can't do that," He opened his mouth to draw in a breath, and then snapped it shut again. He inhaled and then wiped at his nose with his wrist. "Too much to do. I can't stop right now…"

"I _know_ how to _stop_ you, Doc."

The Doctor levered a furious glare toward Jack. "And I told you that you'll never get the chance to do it again. Try it, and I'll test the limits of your immortality."

Jack shook his head and rolled his eyes at the threat. "Then how about you actually stop for a second and we both won't have to find out who has what limit."

"If I stop," the Doctor replied with an even, flat voice with no infliction at all. "For just a second. If I allow myself to remember her…" His voice trailed off as his eyes lifted to stare an unfocussed gaze on the crumpled wall of what was once a nail salon. His breath drew in ragged and exhaled with a wet shudder.

Jack moved a step closer to him. "Doc…"

The Doctor's eyes shifted to Jack and he stared hopelessly at him. "I can't afford to fall apart, Jack. And I will. I will fall so hard I'll never get back up." He sniffed hard and wiped at his nose with his wrist. After a long moment of silence, he finally shifted. He shook himself, lengthening his face to stretch out the defeated expression of grief that had taken hold. "Anyway. No sense in standing about doing nothing. Too much to do. Busy life. Time to move on and all that."

"You _are_ allowed to fall apart," Jack offered gently. "Noone has to know. I won't say a word."

The shake in the Doctor's head was almost indiscernible. He quite possibly said something along the lines of _I can't_, but Jack couldn't say for certain. Deciding to leave it for now, though, Jack steeled himself and looked around the scene.

"So. This _Time Lady_," Jack interrupted before the Doctor could speak. "Tell me about her. Are you sure you're picking up the right signal?"

"Quite sure," he answered after clewaring his throat of a lump. "The telepathic signature is unique-yet-familiar." He paused in his tracks and closed his eyes in concentration. His chest heaved slow and controlled breaths as he let his mind's eye wander through the carnage that was spread all around them. "She's _here_. I just know she is."

"You think she's buried in here, somewhere? In amongst twisted metal and rubble…" He winced at a severd Kradaw limb sticking out from underneath a sheet of steel. "And body parts."

"I really don't know," The Doctor admitted. "I'm picking up traces of regeneration energies from all over this crash site."

"Yeah," Jack answered with a retch at a chunk of something best left unidentified. "This is foul."

"You're welcome to leave me to it, Jack," the Doctor offered in a far too accommodating tone of voice. "I don't need you holding my hand."

"Yeah," he breathed to himself as he lifted his head high in an attempt to see through the smoke and dust. "I think you do. Need to make sure you're not walking into a trap here."

The Doctor shook his head. "Not a trap. It's real. She's real."

"You're sure?"

He nodded. "The connections between Gallifreyans – even when not forged through intimate or familial means – aren't something that can be mimicked. It's quite brilliant, actually," the Doctor continued as he stepped over an open doorway exposing a pit in the ground. He stepped his feet either side of it and stooped low to look inside. "Even if we don't know each other, or have never met, a Gallifreyan will immediately recognize a member of their own species." He straightened up with a shake in his head and stepped off the doorframe to continue his search. He turned back to Jack only long enough to tap at his temple. "It's the benefit of our telepathic nature. Half the universe may have species that look identical in almost every way to one of us, but we always know." He exhaled. "We always sense the presence of another."

"Are you absolutely sure that this is legit, Doc?" Jack ventured warily. "Remember that we've just met with a mortal enemy of Gallifrey that knows pretty intimate things about your species."

"Never has there been any intimacy between Gallifrey and the Kradaw."

Jack held his hands up in surrender. "Not that kind of intimacy. Jeez, Doc. Your mind, it's falling at a velocity far greater than any free falling object ever has."

"Comes from being around you I expect," he muttered distractedly. He then turned and looked to Jack with a brow raised in curiosity. "So. Has there been any movement at Torchwood recently – or ever – about a time-sensitive female wandering about London?"

Jack shook his head. "Nah. Not that I've been made aware of. We've had random bits and bobs playing about, but nothing as interesting as one of you lot." He rubbed at his jaw. "Then again, none of us are really looking out for a wandering Gallifreyan, you know, with the planet being gone and all."

The Doctor let out a sigh. "We are a species of Time Travelers," he replied tiredly. "Gallifrey being alive or dead doesn't mean that there aren't Time Lords still wandering about in some capacity – out of my own timeline, of course."

Jack nodded slowly. "And this one?"

The Doctor licked at his lip. "She's definitely supposed to exist in this timeline."

"How do you know?"

"I just do," he countered tiredly. "It'd take me far too long to explain to you the intricacies of the Time Lord senses, how they react against the ebb and flows of time, and how it is we know the working timeline of any of our species." He looked around the scene again. "No offence."

"So long as you don't take offence to me really not wanting to hear any long-winded explanations of Time Lord senses and blah blah."

"This one, though," the Doctor breathed carefully. "Oh. She's special. Her energy and time signature is like torchlight in the dark. She's a lighthouse on a rocky crag guiding her sailors home."

"She's seducing you?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Not as such," he said slowly as he warily leapt over another chunk of metal and moved toward a young man scouting his designated zone. "At least not in a _sexual_ manner. Her mind is calling out to me, but she isn't quite aware that she's doing it." He tipped a shoulder and looked to Jack. "She's young and not in control. Unshielded and vulnerable to any number of attacks."

"Okay so…"

"I _will_ find her," the Doctor growled under his breath. "Before any other being with nefarious intent does."

Jack huffed. "Which is everyone on this planet."

"Including Torchwood," he warned. "I won't let them take one of my people hostage to play their little games." He sniffed hard. "No offence again."

"Hey, if I disagreed with you in any way at all, I might." He thrust his hands into his trouser pockets and rolled his eyes as the young man approached at a jog from the distance. "Torchwood is shady. So are UNIT and any other so-called defense groups." He flicked his eyes to Toby in the distance, quickly closing the distance between them. "Before the kid gets here. Got any idea who your Time Lady might be?"

He Doctor shook his head. "Her telepathic signature is unusual," he admitted. "Not so much so that I doubt the legitimacy of her existence, though. I can confirm that she's gone through her first regeneration."

"How?"

He licked at the air and made a show of analyzing the taste. "Lindos in the air. It's a hormone produced only by members of my species, it's what triggers a regeneration." He then moaned a slightly apologetic sound. "The poor thing was probably injured when this thing fell from the sky."

"Kradaws regenerate too, don't they?"

"Different hormone combination," he offered quietly. He cut off his words quickly when Toby stumbled to a stop in front of the two of them.

"Jack!" Toby blustered with a pant. "Jack, glad I found you." He looked to the Doctor with suspicion. "And you are?"

Jack flicked his hand between both men. "Toby, Doctor. Doctor, this is Toby: Young recruit usually in records, but obviously recently upgraded to field operative." He grinned and slapped the kid on the shoulder. "Well done."

"Well done indeed," the Doctor agreed with a grin. "Lovely to meet you, but if you don't mind, and at the risk of coming across as slightly rude, would be so kind as to leave us be? The Captain and I are on a search and hopefully rescue operation right now."

"Don't like your chances in finding anyone alive, mate," came back with a shrug. "Scanners aren't showing any surviving life forms in this wreck." He looked to Jack. "Thought we may have had a lucky hit on a pair on the south side – which is why they put me there – but any signs of life fell flat before we could get a decent fix on 'em."

"Toby," Jack said with a soft voice. "Tell the team that they need to look for Agent Tyler. She was on that ship when it went down. They need to find her."

"Oh, no, man? Tyler? Really?" Toby looked honestly upset by the revelation. "One of the truly good ones," he said with a sigh. "I'll notify HQ. I'm so sorry to hear that you lost your partner…" His eyes widened quickly. "Oh. Speaking of. I have a message for you."

"Can it wait?" Jack asked tiredly as he rubbed his eye with the length of his index finger. "I've got more things to worry about that what HQ has to say."

Toby shook his head. "Nah. This is from your girlfriend."

The Doctor and Jack shared a brief look and curious expressions. Jack looked back to Toby. His voice became guarded and wary. "_Girlfriend_, Toby?"

"Well," he drawled with a scratch at his head. "She told me she was your _partner_, and as it wasn't Tyler, I figured she had to be your _partner-_partner, not _field-_partner." He looked back at the place he'd last seen her and scratched at his jaw as he tipped his head. "Come to think of it. She was in Torchwood gear – but I've never seen her." He looked quickly to Jack. "Are you drinking from the company fountain, Sir?"

Jack coughed as the Doctor moved toward Toby quickly. There was hot question in his eyes that wasn't able to successfully shield his concern. "Are you suggesting that this woman _ran_ from _this_ ship?"

"Well I don't know that she was _in_ the ship," he said carefully. "More'n likely an innocent on the ground." His face lengthened and he looked away from the Doctor. "But, she _was_ in Torchwood fatigues, so probably a new recruit that took one look and bolted."

The Doctor felt a swooping sensation inside his belly. It was a rush of hope that he knew he shouldn't even begin to wish for. "Do you have a name?" he questioned with a rattle in his voice.

Toby winced in thought. "Oh, she had an unusual name. Celtic, I think."

"We don't really need not know the origins of her name, Toby," the Doctor grumbled, his patience waning yet further. "Just her name would be fine, please."

Toby raked irritated eyes toward the Doctor, but quickly looked back to Jack. "Your friend, he's not a nice sort, is he?"

"Not really," Jack answered with a huff. "Especially not today. Now, her name?"

"How many _partners_ do you have, Harkness?"

"None," he growled. "Which is precisely why I'd like to know who's running about saying they've pulled any form of commitment out of me."

"Could be important," the Doctor muttered.

Toby blinked and coughed at that. "Oh." His face contorted with struggling remembrance. "Arty, no, Arky. Shit. Should've written it down." He licked at his lip and slowed down the words to attempt to form the sounds properly. "Arkatoor?"

The Doctor's face paled. "Arkytior?"

Toby clapped his hands with victory. "That's it! Arkytior! Told you, Gaelic."

"No," the Doctor corrected darkly. "Not Gaelic." His eyes shifted to Jack. "It's Gallifreyan."

"Same thing isn't it? Irish?"

"Which way did she go?" The Doctor insisted urgently. When Toby didn't answer the very second the question was asked, the Doctor asked again, with a much more demanding tone.

Toby spluttered and pointed off toward a plaza of stores a short distance away. "The woman went that way. But I wouldn't…"

The Doctor wasn't interested in any more information as he immediately shot off in the diction pointed out by Toby. He didn't even bother to check if Jack had launched into a sprint behind him. All he was focused on was finding Arkytior and making sure she was going to be kept safe.


	14. Shopping

_A/N: _A short one today .. I spent too much time fixing up and revising yesterday's chapter to get through what I wanted to get to today... (There's an additional 1000K+ words on yesterday's chapter if you want to skip back and read that over again) So this is a short lead in.

I haven't reread it and my day is done, so fingers crossed it's okay.

Thanks for your comments, it means a lot to hear from you!

_~~oooOOOooo~~_

_Arkytior_

Oh, that name held meaning to the centuries-old Time Lord. It was the shortened part of the name given to an incredible young woman born and raised on Gallifrey. The first of two women to truly find her way into his hearts. The last of the womb-born Time Lords: His grand daughter, Susan.

It was also the name of the only other woman to have nestled herself deeply within his hearts.

Gallifreyan wasn't a language that translated very well into any other. It was a language as transdimensional as his beloved TARDIS. It spoke in melodic tones from the temporal fields of time herself. There was no way to make any direct translation between this or any language – especially not into any Human dialects.

With one exception, of course: _Arkytior_. On Earth, there were several translations for this Gallifreyan term; Albanian's use Trendafil, Finnish people say ruusu. The Russians say Posa, the Irish ardaigh, but the most common word used across the lands of planet Earth was…

…_Rose._

~~oooOOOooo~~

Rose Tyler hadn't remained in her defeated slump against the window for too long. The second she heard the arrival of several large Torchwood SUVs, she knew she had to take flight.

She didn't know what had happened to her; why she now had a new face, new body, and new teeth; but whatever caused it, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to let Torchwood figure it out.

She had to escape and hide out for a little while. Hide until she could figure it all out and make some sort of sense of all this.

First things first, of course. Rose needed to find some fresh clothes. What she wore now was shredded and covered in blood, mud, and dust. The department store on the other side of the window that her head currently rested against would help certainly assist in gathering the items she needed.

Slipping into the partially demolished department store was easy enough. The entire side wall had fallen in one single panel, against the shattered remains of the neighbouring store, which left an entrance wide open and unguarded.

There was no doubt in her mind that the looters were already hovering around the very edges of the disaster zone ready and willing to capitalize on the catastrophe outside. They'd run off with TV's, camcorders and DVD players, possibly booze and cigarettes too if they were within reach. Rose didn't think it too unreasonable, then, to find herself some fresh clothes. The ones she wore were shredded and bloody.

She stumbled slightly as she walked over a couple of upturned clothing racks and messy piles of folded T-shirts. Her head ached like it was full of dry cotton, but swam as though full of water. A dosage of paracetamol would fix that right up, and she began an immediate search around the half-demolished store for a box or container of the stuff.

He quarry was quickly found, as was a bottle of sparkling Perrier. She had two little white pills in her palm and the bottle of water open before she'd even stepped past the empty checkout.

Tossing the two pills onto her tongue, Rose tipped her head back and flushed them down with a generous mouthful of sparkling water, wincing at the burn that the small bubbles caused at the back of her throat as she swallowed repeated draws from the small green bottle.

There was a sudden light pitter patter of touch against her temples, like gentle fingers tapping against bruised skin that had her jump lightly in place. There was an incessant little tingle, some warmth, and then nothing. When it happened again a short few seconds later, Rose swatted rather angrily at the ghostly touch.

"Oh, Sod off," she cursed under her breath as she spun in place and swatted again, much like she would a mosquito. Immediately the sensation dissipated and Rose was left in relative silence.

She exhaled a breath of relief and set her bottle down on a fixture beside a rack of trousers. The tip of her tongue touched at her lip as she hunted through the rainbow of colours for a shade of black that would be far more appropriate in allowing her to blend in and sneak around. Her brow flicked to see only bright shades of blue, pink, red, and orange, and with a huff of defeat she wandered toward the stacks of jeans on a fixture a short distance away.

As she passed a table of T-shirts in muted shades of green, brown and grey, she swiped a V-neck shirt. She held the shirt in her teeth as she used both arms to peel off her current shirt and toss it to the floor.

The new shirt was pulled mindlessly over her head and smoothed into place while she walked, and before she made it to the denim. She looked with her eyes, rather than using her hands to sort through the different styles of jeans, and finally settled on a basic blue bootcut pair that weren't too low in the rise, but looked to want to sit snug across her hips.

After she kicked off her shoes and then her dusted trousers, Rose stooped to pull up her new pants. She was aghast to find that they were a choice that were shamefully two-sizes too small.

"You've got to be kidding me," she growled in displeasure as she dropped them to her ankles and then squatted over them to look at the size. She couldn't help the moan of disgust that escaped her as she rose to a stand and kicked the jeans violently across the floor.

"Six months," she growled. "Six months it took me to drop enough weight to get into that size. Six months," she continued grousing as she snatched a larger pair from the display. "Six agonizing months of not eating and exercising until I puked, and now what? One miserable regeneration and I'm right back up there?"

_Regeneration…_

That word made her pause for a moment. She remained very still, with her fingers still on the zipper tag of her jeans. Before she could consider that idea further, however, there was movement just outside that had her dive head-first into a fixture of leather jackets. She peeped a pathetic sound as she held one of the jackets across her face and exposed only one eye to look out across the street.

Her grip on the leather tightened when she saw his face, wild-eyed and looking damn-near panicked.

She whispered his name with the lightest of breaths, and one that she immediately inhaled back in as though to keep any mention of that word well hidden in the shadow of a darkened store.

Immediately, the Doctor's frantic movements slowed. The wild and manic expression softened. He moved slowly toward the window and extended a tender reach toward the glass.

A whisper of her name in a breath full of heartbreak and longing ghosted through her mind as the Doctor slowly lowered himself into a crouch in front of the window. The tips of his fingers drew down along the glass and paused against a blemish in the otherwise perfect light coating of dust.

Rose knew immediately that it was where her forehead had rested on the glass only a few minutes before. Was the Doctor able to actually sense that, or was it just a freaky coincidence that he happened to come by this place?

"_Why'd you take off like that? This Arkytior girl; do you think you might know her?"_

Rose's eyes shot up at the sound of Jack's voice, but rather than run to him as her instincts demanded, she hid further back in the rack of jackets.

_"__I don't believe in coincidences, Jack," _The Doctor answered in a firm tone of voice. His eyes held on the blemish in the window. "_The word _Arkytior_. It has meaning to my people … but none more than me."_

Jack cupped his hands around his eyes and stepped forward to press his make-shift set of goggles against the glass. "_What kind of meaning,"_ he queried as his eyes scanned the destroyed store within.

Rose held her breath and tightened her grip on the jacket. Her eyes flicked to the Doctor as his eyes lifted from the blemish to look past the dust and into the store itself. The lock of his gaze seemed to find her immediately, and she stared hopelessly into those ancient brown eyes of his from across the other end of the store.

If he saw her as she saw him, he didn't react to it. His eyes didn't shift or sweep away from her, and he didn't move to approach her. Instead, he continued to speak to Jack as if he hadn't even noticed.

"_My Grand Daughter was named _Arkytior_," _he admitted with calm openness that was completely out of character for him. "_On Earth, and with any human companions, she called herself Susan. And so did I. I don't know that I ever called her Arkytior once we left Gallifrey."_

"_I really want to comment with complete incredulity my disbelief in you being a grandfather._"

The Doctor let out a light chuckle. _"Great Grandfather, actually._" He blinked, but his eyes remained on the shadows of the store.

Jack whistled an appreciative tune. "_How many levels of _great_ does a Time Lord reach before he finally ascends to the TARDIS in the skies? Ten? Thirteen? Twenty?"_

_"__Do you want to know the English translation for the word Arkytior, Jack?"_ The Doctor asked finally, as he drew himself to a stand and finally shifted his eyes from the store to look at the man beside him. He didn't wait for Jack to answer yay or nay before offering up the translation. He did so by looking back into the window and focusing on the shadow in the deepest part of the store. _"It means …"_

His explanation cut abruptly at a crash and a yelp from within the store as Rose lost her balance and tugged down the entire rack of clothing she'd been hiding behind. She staggered backward, tripped, and fell backward onto the denim table behind her. She was an uncoordinated flurry of long legs, flailing arms, and long auburn hair as she fell out of the shadows into the light…

…and into sight of the Time Lord.

"...Rose..."


	15. Identity

A/N: Awwww to all of your wonderful comments! Thanks for that! It made me feel all awesome inside and meant that I couldn't wait to write up the next chapter!

I hope you like this one!

~~oooOOOooo~~

The Doctor's eyes locked on the green eyes hidden behind auburn hair, and he moved before her name was past his lips, only to collide with the thick plate-glass window in front of him.

He ignored the sting in his nose at the collision to watch as the woman behind the window – the Time Lady he'd sought –danced a skittered jump left to right, and then turned and ran.

"No!" he bellowed in panic as he pounded a single strike of his closed fist against the window. "Rassilon, please. No! Don't run!"

Jack looked toward the Doctor with an expression of utter shocked confusion as the Time Lord hit the glass again. "Doc?" He called worriedly as he pulled his gun from his shoulder holster. He looked through the window in search of any movement. "What've you got?"

The Doctor slapped his hands on the window either side of his shoulders and called out his pleading again. He paced quickly, like a tiger caged in a zoo, and returned to the window again. "Get me in there, Jack," he growled low. "There's got to be a way in." His eyes caught Jack's gun and he sharply tipped his head to the window. "Shoot it out."

Jack frowned. He shook his head as he reholstered his weapon. "No need," he answered flatly. "This way, then. Wall's gone, we can get in."

The Doctor quickly lived up to his reputation of unashamed rudeness as he roughly shoved past his friend and leapt over the fallen bricks and concrete, the tails of his jacket flailing behind him.

"Well," Jack muttered to himself with a lift in his brow and a slight tic in his head. "Straight back to it, then." His head still twisted side to side as he maneouvered himself around the shattered wall of the store to follow. "Rude and not ginger, but devishly handsome to the point of _almost _being worth the aggravation."

He took a guarded position that looked almost lazy on a support column close to where the Doctor was hurriedly pacing and searching near a fallen rack of jackets. He crossed his legs at the ankle and folded his arms across his chest to simply observe the frantic Time Lord.

And frantic was definitely an apt description for the Doctor's erratic and desperate hunt through a store quite obviously clear of any form of life. He stalked the floor with all the focus of a bloodhound trying to pick up a scent. He sniffed at the air, licked at the air, crouched in the fallen clothing and pawed through the mess. Each shift of his body was static, robotic, and purposeful.

It was when the Doctor let out a low and rumbling growl of frustration that Jack finally said something. When he spoke, it was with carefully calculated tones.

"Is someone was here, Doc. She's gone now."

"I _know_ that," the Doctor growled in reply. "But I'm not leaving here until I find something – _anything_ – to let me know where she went."

"I don't think she's left you a copy of a Google Directions search," he muttered as he peeled off the column and moved cautiously toward the mess.

"There's really no need to be facetious," the Doctor countered angrily.

"Right," he replied on a sigh. "Can't be helped. It's a habit."

The Doctor remained in a steady crouch in the pile of jackets. He rested his elbows on his knees and raked his eyes through the scattered debris. "She was here. _Right here_."

"Your Time Lady?" Jack ventured with a smile.

The Doctor nodded. "She looked me right in the eye, Jack. She knew it was me, yet she still ran." He let out a rejected breath. "I've never hurt her before, why would she think I'd hurt her now? All I've ever wanted is for her to be safe. She _has_ to know that."

"What?" Jack breathed with puzzlement. "Who?"

"Or does she think I'd reject her?" the Doctor continued. His face tightened in a frown and his voice fell into a whisper. "Why would I do that? What have I ever done to make her _think _that I'd ever do that to her?"

Jack chose not to say anything further. It was obvious that the Doctor needed to work his mind through a few things, and it was best that he just shut his gob and let the man do it. The answers to his questions could wait a moment. Or he could get his answers by listening to the man mumble to himself. The Doctor tended to give up more information when he rambled to himself than when he actually thought to _give_ an answer.

And the Doctor kept on muttering as he stayed in his crouch and looked around some more. "She needs me, Jack. _Oh_, she might not think it right now, but she does. She's always been a little stubborn, my precious girl, but she'll come round."

Jack's heart sank slightly in his chest. The information he was gleaning from the Doctor right now was alarming, and led the immortal man to believe that the Time Lord had finally lost his mind.

"Doctor," Jack began gently, in a tone of voice he didn't think he'd ever used before – not even to soothe the fears of a crying child. "Rose is gone."

The Doctor lifted his eyes to Jack's. There was no upset in the stare that he offered, nor was there any aggression at all. If Jack read it correctly, the Doctor was looking at him as though he was a confused child that had just spit up on his shirt.

"Rose Tyler – as we _knew_ her – is gone," he replied cryptically. He let out a breath and relaxed further into his crouch as he continued to survey the scene. "Though it's hard to say just _how_ much we both loved about her is going to have changed." He inhaled deep. "The effect of regenerations in the ladies does tend to differ quite remarkably to those experienced by the Lords. Oh, she looks different, of course she does." He smiled and looked back to Jack. "And she's beautiful, Jack. So beautiful."

"Hold on, what?"

The Doctor looked away again. "Not that I'm an expert on the Ladies of Time, mind you. I've really only had sparse dealings with regenerating female Gallifreyans. Four of five at most. And one thing does tend to go from incarnation to incarnation, and that's their personality. My wife," he huffed out with a grunt as he shifted from his crouch into a stand. "She was a self-righteous and indignant woman throughout all her incarnations." His eyes flicked to Jack. "Although I was only there for one and a half of them. I heard stories, though. Yes. I. Did. The universe isn't _that_ big. Unfortunately."

Jack grimaced in disbelief and shook his head as he tried to work in a word of question. "What are you talking about?"

"Romana," the Doctor sang with a smile. "Now, okay. She changed just slightly when she went through it. I'm more of the mind to put it to my brilliant manner of teaching her about the wonders of the universe and how truly humble we should be, rather than a change due to regeneration." He thrust his fists into his trouser pockets and kicked at a black shoe like it was a football on a field. "Such an amazing woman, Romana." He looked to Jack with a cheeky smile. "You would've liked her. Smart, classy, brilliant!"

He gave up trying. "Was she hot?"

"Beautiful," the Doctor corrected. "Always beautiful." He saw a filthy pair of black trousers on the ground and moved cautiously toward it. "Now, the Rani is another Time Lady who kept her personality well intact as she..." He stopped abruptly in front of the pants and dropped into a low crouch.

Jack's eyes dropped to the garment as the Doctor reached out to pick it up. "What've you got?"

The Doctor brought the trousers up to his face and inhaled deeply. It was an action that had Jack flick a brow high.

"Oh-kay, Doc," Jack breathed slowly. "What are you _doing_?"

The Doctor pulled the trousers from his face with an abrupt movement. He licked at his lips as though lapping a sugary substance from them, and then nodded quickly. "Right. That confirms it." He tipped his head. "Not that I doubt my instincts in slightest, but it is always nice to get additional confirmation from other sources." He let out a breath and spoke distractedly. "It's not often that the old instincts get a work out these days, _what_, with there being no other Time Lords around to keep me on my telepathic toes, but. Good." He nodded. "Good to know it's all still functioning as it should."

"Doc," Jack huffed in slight exasperation. "Look. I really want to pretend that I know what you're on about. I do. I want nothing more than to save you having to launch in to some long-winded and irrelevant explanation…"

"I've never minded providing explanations, Jack."

"Then to save _me_ from having to hear it," he amended sharply. "But you, my friend, are making no sense what-so-ever, and all I want to do is get my heartbroken and tired ass home, down a bottle of Vodka and lament my continued existence on a planet that doesn't have Rose Tyler on it." He poked his finger through the air in the direction of the man in a crouch on the floor. "But I can't do that right now…"

"I'm really not stopping you."

"I. Can't. Leave," Jack enunciated slowly. "Until I know you're not completely losing your _superior Time Lord mind_."

The Doctor shrugged. "My mind is perfectly intact, thank you."

"I'm not seeing the evidence of that," Jack shot back. "You're babbling away like a drunkard about regenerations and telepathic senses…"

"Which is wholly relevant given the current situation," the Doctor defended calmly. He quickly rose to a stand and tossed the black trousers to Jack. "Any lamentations about living on a planet where Rose Tyler is no longer a living resident can wait until I've been able to take her hand, lead her back to my TARDIS, and fly her off world myself."

Jack caught the trousers with an exaggerated _oomph_. "Now I _know_ you've lost it," he growled. "Rose is…"

"Currently experiencing the effects of regeneration confusion," the Doctor interrupted quickly. He indicated the trousers with a jut of his chin and a flick of his hand. "She obviously found that pair a little uncomfortable – possibly too snug – in her new incarnation and discarded them in favour of a pair of denims that fit a little better."

Jack's eyes flashed wide. He quickly snatched the trousers tightly in his fists and twisted them left and right as he looked over them with disbelief. "Hold on. What?"

"If you check the pockets, I'm sure you'll find her Torchwood ID, and no doubt her favourite brand of gum – Spearmint if I remember correctly." He clapped his hands and then wiped them against each other. "Now. We should head back to the TARDIS and begin a scan of the area. Now that I'm quite positive of who we're looking for, I can refine the TARDIS scanning criteria to locate her."

Jack snatched at the Doctor's wrist before he could walk away. "Wait a minute."

The Doctor looked down at Jack's hand, but said nothing about it. He waited with forced patience for Jack to continue. When he didn't immediately do so, he let out a breath. "Yes, Captain?"

"Are you saying," Jack croaked hopefully. "That this Time Lady you're looking for…" He swallowed hard. "Is Rose?"

The Doctor nodded firmly. "I am. Now. If you have further questions, would you mind asking while we're walking back to the TARDIS?" He shook his arm to free it of Jack's grasp and headed toward the opening in the wall of the store. "Rose is currently confused, frightened, and alone. I'd prefer to find her as quickly as possible before my precious and jeopardy-friendly girl finds herself in trouble."

As the Doctor took his leave, Jack remained rooted in place, astounded by the news just offered to him by the Doctor. He shook his head and stared at the Torchwood-issue trousers. "It can't be," he whispered to himself as he slipped his fingers into the back pocket and retrieved a small, and horribly pink, flip wallet that held Rose's Torchwood ID.

He couldn't hold in the sob that rose into his throat. His eyes filled, making the image of the Doctor standing at the doorway swim.

"Well?" The Doctor called back. "Are you going to stand there all day or are you coming to the TARDIS?"

Jack swiped almost angrily at his eyes. He nodded, cleared his throat, and then jogged toward the street. "Promise me, Doc," he demanded brokenly. "Promise me this is actually Rose, and not a horrible joke."

"While I don't doubt the universe has the right kind of humour to pull a prank like this," he answered with mirth. "I can assure you that it's no joke."

"I told you to promise me," Jack chided him firmly. "Promise it, because I can't lose her twice in one day."

"Neither can I, Jack. Neither can I."


	16. Love

A/N: An extra chapter today! That's because you all gave me lots of feedback! Makes me write more!

Right. So. How many times do I have to say that I completely suck at the deep and touchy-feely? I should really quit at trying it, but I can't help myself in giving it my all. Don't cringe too noticeably...

I ended it here because:  
A) Smut and I are not a good combo. Not so good at it. It's best I don't go near that lest you all need to bleach your eyes when it's over  
B) What the Doctor considers "Making Love" and what Rose sees it as are two very different games of play ... might want to play with that idea somewhat ... might not ... dunno yet  
C) I am at a fork in the road and am debating which road to take. I'll have that decided overnight...

I certainly hope that you enjoy a second offering for the day - these don't happen too often.

~~oooOOOooo~~

If there was one place in the entire universe that Rose Tyler felt safe and secure, it was in her mum's flat in the Powell Estate. It was always her first choice for refuge in any situation.

Jackie Tyler may have had a prickly a reputation to anyone outside the home, but Rose knew otherwise. But when it came to the emotional state of her daughter, Jackie was the single most caring creature in the entire universe.

A cup of tea and a talk was never just tea and talking. Tea and talking generally included hugs, cuddles, tears, and vows of always being there for her little girl no matter what.

_No matter what_.

That was a vow that Rose couldn't exactly hold her mother to right at this moment. As much as she wanted to rush up those stairs, pound on the door, and fall into her mother's arms, Rose knew she couldn't. How could she? How could she do that and expect Jackie not to freak out completely?

Rose needed comfort and reassurances, not upset, accusations, tears and yelling. Jackie couldn't provide that to her now; or probably ever. How could she be expected to just accept a total stranger as her daughter?

She'd sooner believe that her daughter was dead than in the body of a total stranger.

Rose let out a breath at the thought. She should leave; turn her back on the Powel Estates and never look back. She was a resourceful girl, surely she could pick herself up and carry on…

…But how could she? Rose Tyler might be a strong, capable girl who could take on the alien hoardes and save the universe alongside the irrepressible Jack Harkness, but she was still a mama's girl who needed her mum's comfort every once in a while. And right now she needed a cuddle from her mum more than anything else in the world.

It was probably the reason she hadn't yet left the shadow of the under covered area of the courtyard that looked over Flat #48 of Bucknall House. She'd reached her decision to run from the Estate over an hour previous, but she couldn't bring herself to walk away just yet. She convinced herself that it was only because she was waiting to capture one last glimpse of her mother. Just a last image for her to hang on to as she moved on.

She'd seen her mother at least four times in that time frame. Each time for fairly innocuous reasons; taking out the rubbish, borrowing sugar from a handsome new neighbor, checking the status of her laundry in the laundry room downstairs. Each time, Rose convinced herself that it just wasn't the _right_ image to remember. The next sighting would, for sure, be the one.

Dusk was falling quickly, and so too was the outside temperature of the estates. Soon it would be dark and the temperature would plummet completely. All Rose had on her were the jeans and t-shirt that she stole from the store. She didn't even think to snatch up a jacket. Day one without her mother, and already she was feeling completely unprepared for it.

God. What was she going to do? Where did she go from here?

From the corner of her eye she watched as the dull orange light of the courtyard lit up with a hum. Night was definitely on its way. She'd need to seek shelter for the night if she didn't want to freeze to death. But not right now. Give her a few more minutes to capture one last look at Jackie before she left. Just one.

Rose sighed a trembling breath as she wrapped her arms around her chest and stroked quickly at her shoulders to find warmth in the chilling evening. She shuddered when across the courtyard she watched the porch light for #48 flick on and Jackie Tyler's head emerged from around the front door to yell across at a neighbour to come get their sodding cat.

Rose wished that she could laugh at the sight, but she couldn't. Instead she held herself tighter and whispered a plea for her mother to tell her what she should do.

There was a rustling of heavy fabric behind her, and Rose stilled as she felt the weight of a long jacket settle on her shoulders. She held her breath and watched out of the corner of her eye as the Doctor walked to her side and silently raised his eyes to look at the doorway to #48. He said nothing - didn't even cast his eyes in her direction – just stayed quietly at her side as though he was a protective sentinel guard.

Rose swallowed thickly, but said nothing. She released the tight fold of her arms and dipped her shoulders side-to-side as she maneouvred her arms through the sleeves of his jacket. No sooner had she let her arms fall to her sides, and the Doctor curled his hand around hers and held it with a firm and supportive grasp. She remained silent as she changed the hold between them to thread her fingers through his for a tighter hold. The gesture seemed to reassure him, as he smiled into the distance and stroked her thumb with his.

Silence was not something that was typical between them. Whenever she and the Doctor were within hearing distance of each other, there was always some kind of conversation and banter going on. More often than not it was the Doctor who initiated the talking and kept the chatter going on long after it should have ceased. And so to have him quietly standing at her side now with only the dimple in his cheek and the rise and fall of his Adam's apple offering any kind of conversation at all, unnerved her.

As though he could feel her rising discomfort, his thumb stroked a longer and more tender path along hers.

"How?" The word escaped her before she even knew what the complete question was. She tried to swallow over a dried mouth and had to do so a couple of times before she could wet her tongue properly.

He didn't try for force her to finish the question, however. The usually unstoppable motor-gob of the Doctor remained steadfastly closed as he patiently continued to stare at the door of #48 and wait for Rose to be ready to talk.

"How did you know," she ventured again with more luck on clarifying her question. She inhaled and held tighter at his hand. "Back at the store. How did you know that I was me?" She inhaled a shuddering breath. "I-I didn't know I was even me, Doctor. How could _you_?"

It was the break in her voice that broke his trance. He let the shift in his head turn the focus of his gaze toward the frightened young woman at his side. He offered her a gentle smile as he lifted a hand to tenderly take her chin in between his thumb and finger.

"Rose Tyler," he answered hoarsely. "I'm _always_ going to know it's _you_." He let his eyes trace over every feature in her face. "Always."

He had only enough time to lift his chin and avoid her forehead cracking against it as Rose clutched at the lapel of his blazer and launched herself at him. She was unapologetic as she let out a despairing sob and crushed herself into his chest. He quickly released her hand and snapped his arms around her trembling body to let her sob helplessly against his chest.

"I've got you, Rose," he assured her with a quiet shush. "It's okay. I've got you."

The Doctor lifted his eyes back to the door to Jackie's flat as he let Rose dissolve completely against him. At times he stumbled under her weight as he tried to accommodate to her new and unusual stature, but he managed to keep her safely ensconced in his arms.

"I promise you," he breathed vehemently against her hair. "That I am going to think of a way to make Jackie understand." He breathed out hard against her hair and held her yet tighter. "You're not losing your mother over this, Rose. I won't allow it."

She lifted her head and shifted her sodden eyes to look into his. Her distress was palpable enough that he could taste the acidity of it on his tongue. All he could do in response to her despair was breathe out a whisper of her name.

"How can I go to her, Doctor?" she pleaded.

"I'll think of something, Rose. I promise you."

Rose shook her head. Her eyes were wide, round, and horrifically large, and with the way she clutched onto the lapels of his blazer to hold her to him, she looked like a timid little kitten asking for snuggles.

"She'll never accept me, Doctor." She dropped her forehead against his chest and heaved in a breath. "How can I expect that of anyone? I'm an alien."

He drew his hands from across her back and shifted them across her face to scoop her cheeks in to his palms. He tenderly lifted her head to look up at him and waited until her eyes focused on his to speak. "Not to me." He let out a breath against her face. "Never to me."

She rolled quickly onto her toes and pressed her mouth firmly against his. She didn't release her hold on his lapels, but gripped tighter and tugged against them to draw him closer to her.

He didn't relinquish the tender hold he had on her cheeks as he inhaled her breath and tipped his head just slightly. With that light movement, he increased the pressure against her lips and gently coaxed her mouth to slacken the grit of her teeth to roll her jaw slowly against his.

It was not a wet kiss of warring tongues and explorations of each other's mouths. It was just a rolling pleasure of lips against lips, an assurance from him that he wasn't going to let her tumble alone. That no matter what, he was going to be there to help her get through this.

Rose pulled away from the kiss with a gentle release. He fought against the urge to chase her lips with his. Instead, he replaced his mouth with his thumbs and let them trace lazily across her lower lip.

"Together, yeah?" he asked her softly. "You'll let me help you make sense of this."

Rose released the tight lock of her fingers on his lapel and smoothed it a moment before she petted it twice and stepped back from him. Her hands shifted into the pockets of his jacket and she allowed herself the indignity of slouching. "So. Did I somehow become Gallifreyan when I wasn't looking?"

He scratched at his sideburn and considered that question for a moment. "Without performing any tests on you I can't say for sure that you haven't always had a little bit of Gallifrey inside you." He stopped scratching, but didn't lower his hand from his jaw. "It isn't completely out of the realm of possibility that somewhere in your bloodline one of my people might've had a little influence. Gallifreyans weren't _always_ the robe-wearing pompous fools who did nothing but _observe_ the universe and the species she had spread across her many planets. There have been stories told about frisky members of my species _dancing _with members of yours." He looked to her and resumed scratching his sideburn. "Of course it's a slim chance, mind, that it occurred, but not impossible."

"I doubt, very much, that a wandering Time Lord found himself getting frisky with anyone in my family tree," she huffed with forced indignance. "The Tylers and Prentices aren't exactly the best stock…"

"I think you are," he interrupted quietly.

"Yeah," she answered back with a flick in her hand and a crease in her brow. " But you. You're. I mean you're _you_. You don't count."

"Why not?"

"Doctor…"

"No," he demanded gently. "Tell me why I don't count. I'm a Time Lord. I was raised as one of the pompous robe-wearing bastards that survived the academy and thinks he's above everyone else." He tipped his head to one side. "Why don't I count?"

She rolled her eyes. "Well you like the strays, don't you? You like pick up the motleys and show them the better way of living."

The Doctor lengthened his expression and nodded at her words. "A fair enough assessment, I suppose." He pursed his lips outward and kissed at the air to release the pout. "Not entirely accurate, mind you, but I can see how you've reached that conclusion."

"So are you saying that I'm a Gallifreyan Time Lord, then?" she blurted out with a wince of idiocy at how that sounded.

The Doctor inhaled deeply enough that it pulled his face into a tight wince. "The term for you is _Lady_, and yes, I think I can say without a doubt that you are one." He swept his hand up and down in the air in front of her. "Proof of regenerative abilities aside, you are producing all of the trace elements and hormones that a Time Lady should." He winced and looked off to the side as he cleared his throat with obvious unease at that revelation. "And I'm certainly receptive to it as I should be."

Her eyes tightened. " Oh?" When she saw his Adams apple rise and fall in a difficult swallow, her eyes widened. "Oh!"

"Again," he said quickly. "I can't say for sure without conducting a few tests first. Human with Gallifreyan qualities or just a brilliant Human who can harness the power of the vortex. We can find out together." He held his hand out to her. "So how about you come with me back to the TARDIS? You can shower, warm yourself up, I'll make some tea…"

"Will you make love to me?"

That question had his breath clog up in his throat. His voice was a pitch or two higher than normal. "Pardon me?"

Her expression was one of challenge. "Have I changed enough that you'd be able to make love to me, now?"

"Rose," he answered carefully. "You don't have to be a Time Lady for me to want to make love with you. I've had that condition now for quite some time."

Her head tipped to one side. "But you never did."

He felt what she was up to more than saw it. He didn't quite understand what she was up to, but he kind of knew she was pushing at something. He opted for the safest thuth he could muster. "I never felt worthy of you," he admitted slowly. "Love like you could offer me, I never thought I should in any way ever be entitled to that."

"And now?"

He stepped toward her and held his hands on her shoulders. He inhaled as he watched the movements of his thumbs along her collar bone. "Rose," he whispered softly in a hoarse whisper. He exhaled and lifted his eyes to hers as he drew in a breath. "I lost you today."

"I'm right here," she corrected gently.

"Not four hours ago," he said emotionally. "Four hours ago I watched you – the love of every single one of my lives – get fatally wounded by a Kradaw soldier." His face tightened into a wince of remembrance and his voice broke into a whisper of agony. "I watched you get hit and caught you in my arms before you could hit the ground. I watched as you slowly died right there before me and lived through each one of your memories as your life flashed across both of our eyes."

His hands tremored as he lifted them to cup at her cheeks. "When I woke on the TARDIS. Rose. I believed you were gone. I thought you'd broken your promise of forever and had left me all alone … again … in the universe." He sniffed wetly and lifted his face to press trembling lips to her forehead. "That's enough to make any man toss aside any self-imposed rules and vows of celibacy."

She trembled against him as she slid her arms around his hips.

He shuddered out a whimper at her touch. "I lost you, Rose. And you took my hearts with you."

She blinked into his expression of loss and regret. "Do you want them back?"

He shook his head and breathed out his answer. "No." He licked at his lip as he swallowed down a lump. "Keep them. They've always been yours."

"Make love to me, Doctor," she pleaded with desperation. "I need to feel something, _anything_, that isn't this ache in my heart."

"Come with me to the TARDIS," he whispered with a nod of his head. He lowered his hands to take hers from around his hips. He held her hands and tugged lightly to draw her into a walk with him. "Come with me, Rose."


	17. Making Love to a Time Lord

_A/N: _This one ... wow ... This took me on a ride I wasn't prepared to take. I didn't cover the ground that I wanted to cover, and then a topic came up that I absolutely did not expect to crop up right here and right now ... But this is a post GitF fic, so why not get it in there and over and done with. So that makes this a long chapter that doesn't really move the plot along all that greatly. sorry about that.

How does one warn about the presence of telepathic intimacy and to tread carefully if that might creep you out? By mentioning it one would suppose. It's not in any way racy or smutty, but it is Time Lord nookie, (my version of it anyway) so who knows? If I am a halfway decent writer and can stir up a little emotion with it, then YAH!

Again, though, not a smut queen, so no fear of any "Tab A into Slot B" kind of thing from me ... And please don't ask for it.

Anyhooooooo ... Lemme know what you think...

_~~oooOOOooo~~_

_"__Make love to me, Doctor," she pleaded with desperation. "I need to feel something, anything, that isn't this ache in my heart."_

_"__Come with me to the TARDIS," he whispered with a nod of his head. He lowered his hands to take hers from around his hips. He held her hands and tugged lightly to draw her into a walk with him. "Come with me, Rose."_

Rose remained firm in place and shook her head. "No, Doctor."

Bewilderment was a state that the Doctor had found himself in many times since the day he met Rose. Generally speaking, the female gender had reduced him to various degrees of such bafflement throughout his entire life. They were remarkable creatures – all of them. Brilliant, even. But he never could quite get a firm grip their oftentimes unreadable nuances to understand them completely. So he did find them somewhat baffling at times. But none tended to confuse him more than Rose Tyler.

And right now, he was completely perplexed.

His expression was not one of anger, nor was it one of hurt and rejection. He wore a face of question and a pair of eyebrows that were pinched, yet said high on his forehead.

"I don't understand."

Rose's expression of profound heartbreak morphed to question, and then to realization. "Oh." She smiled and rubbed her thumbs along the length of his thumbs. "I'm not changing my mind. I _want_ you to make love to me."

"Just not right now?" He couldn't shield the bafflement from his voice.

She bit at her lip and looked into his eyes; hers wide with encouragement, his narrowed and guarded in confusion.

"Then come with me to the TARDIS," he pleaded gently. "We can come together and make love there." He smiled an excitable grin. "Oh, and I have the perfect room in mind for our first coupling. You'll love it, Rose. It's right above the Eye of Harmony. A dome that's three storeys high. _Three storeys,_ Rose!"

She couldn't help but chuckle at his excitement.

"The dome rises from the floor and," He swept an arm up over his head and down behind him. "And you can project any image at all across it to completely immerse yourself in any part of time or space." He lifted a hand to stroke his fingertip down along the bridge and tip of her nose, letting it hover against her full bottom lip a moment before inhaling to speak again. "We could stand in the centre of 13 light years of absolute beauty in the middle of the Cassiopeia Constellation, or stand beside the dark pillars of the Carina Nebula." He exhaled a breath of pure awe that let his words fall from his lips in a whisper. "Imagine that, Rose. We could have love in complete contraction to the furious anger of the birth and death of the stars that surround us."

"Who knew you were such a romantic?" Rose breathed with a smile.

"I'm sure you'll realize there's a great deal to me that will come as a complete surprise to you, Rose." His voice softened and he lightly tugged her closer to him. "The suave suit, the haughty arrogance, it's all a front."

"I hope not," she whispered against his lips as she moved in for a chaste kiss. "They're two of the things I love most about you."

"And they're not going anywhere, my precious girl," he vowed passionately as his arms locked tightly around her hips. "I'm sure, though, that you'll find I have many more very loveable quirks to embrace as well."

"I can't wait to find out."

"Then come with me," he asked huskily. "To the TARDIS. Let me show myself to you."

Rose dropped her hands to her hips loosened his hold with a shake of her head. She took his hands in hers and walked deeper into the shadow of the courtyard. "Love me here," she pleaded throatily. "In the beauty that is _my_ home."

The Doctor looked up quickly to take stock of their surroundings. There was nothing here that he would consider _beautiful_. It was dusty, damp, littered with discarded papers, cigarette butts and pop cans. It was hardly the setting for where he'd want to experience his first love making session with his Rose Tyler.

He couldn't hide the disappointment in his voice. "Here, Rose? But why?"

"Because," She answered softly with a look around the alcove they stood in. She continued to walk them both backward toward the wall. "This is … was … my home." She sniffed. "Where I've had love my entire life." Her breath shuddered. "And where I'm probably going to lose it…"

He stopped their slow advance toward the wall with a snap of his arms around her hips. "You are _never_ going to lose the love of your mother, Rose." His voice became a low and passionate growl. "I won't allow it. Do you hear me? You may have changed…"

"There's no question of it," she countered softly.

"Yes. You've changed." He clutched at her face and held it firm. "You now have the twin beating hearts of my people, brilliant red hair, eyes that swirl with the creation of the universe herself…"

"You're getting romantic again," she said with a shudder in her words.

"But at the very core, you're still my Rose Tyler," he continued. "My brilliant, precious girl, who grew up on the estates, dropped out on getting her A-grades and worked in a shop." He inhaled. "I'm sure you'll still love your chips and telly, beans on toast and worship the colour pink." He stroked the underneath of her eyes with his thumbs. "And Jackie's going to see that. She will see that you're still that wonderful, brilliant, feisty young woman she raised." He pressed a kiss to her forehead, against the crease between her brows. "Just like I do." He breathed a cool breath against her skin. "And she's still going to love you, Rose. Just like I do. Like I always will."

Rose gave a final tug on him as she fell against the wall. She whimpered quite pathetically as she curled her arms around his neck and tugged him up against her. "God, Doctor. Make love to me. Now. Before I combust."

His brows flew high as she crashed her mouth against his. His arms flailed for only a second before his hands slammed hard at the wall either side of her head and then slid down and to her shoulders as together they deepened the kiss. He gave the slightest push against her shoulders to separate his mouth from hers and puffed against her lips.

"Doctor?"

"Gimme a minute," he panted with a thick swallow. "I need to make sure of this; that you know what you're offering me."

"Yes," she hissed with frustration. "My body, Doctor, my soul. I'm offering to give you all of me. Right here, right now." She licked at her lip and her voice quietened. "Don't' reject me now, Doctor. Please."

His lips were pressed hard against her brow as he vowed to never reject her. He cursed to Rassilon at the location they were in and her urgency to make this connection with him. He knew she needed his assurance of his love for her, and he'd be a liar if he tried to claim that he didn't need her affirmation toward him just as desperately. But for the love of the Gods, he didn't want to do it here."

Her lips lightly suckled at his Adam's apple, and her hands were inside his Blazer. His inner war faltered as she fumbled with the buttons of his Oxford and he couldn't suppress the moan that escaped him when her mouth shifted to the pulse point and she hissed her love for him against his skin.

Any fight he had left within him fled completely when Rose's hands found their way up underneath his undershirt and splayed across his stomach. Her touch was life wildfire that spread upward and outward and curled around both hearts to snare them mid-beat. He stumbled at the knees and struggled to maintain his stand.

He groaned her name through a wide-open mouth, and Rose watched transfixed at the lift of his tongue to the roof of his mouth to complete each sound of that for letter word. She wanted to capture that tongue of his and let it curl around hers. With a whimper of her own, she rolled up onto her toes and captured his lips. She noisily sucked his tongue into her mouth to claim it in a frenzied and messy kiss that lasted only a few seconds before she tore her mouth off his and growled out his name.

"Are you sure?" he asked breathlessly as his hands moved up along her arms, her shoulders, and then to her face. "Are you absolutely sure you want this, Rose? Me? Here and now?"

"God, yes," she whined in response. "Please, Doctor."

His panted breaths peppered thickly against her lips as his hands moved up over her cheeks and his fingers settled against her temples. "For _love_, Rose. Not because you're upset or frightened, but because you _love me."_

"More than I love myself," she vowed thickly.

"But no more than I love you," he countered softly with a smile. His voice fell to a whisper as he lightly pulsed the touch of his fingers against her temples. "Now close your eyes, Rose. Let me in."

He waited until her eyes fluttered shut at his request before he let his slowly fall shut. He licked at his lip and inhaled deeply as he opened his mind and reached out for her. He felt the thick draw of his consciousness pull from the length of his spine, and the breathlessness inside his chest as his soul soared through his hearts and up into his throat. He opened his mouth to breathe out his promise of utter and complete devotion toward her, but found himself inhaling it all back in with a gasp when he felt Rose's hands fumble with the fastening of his trousers.

He dropped his hands to hers and stumbled slightly backward. Suddenly thrown by the sudden, rather violent, recall of his consciousness and the confusion about Rose's actions, the Doctor could only splutter nonsensically for a moment.

Rose looked down at where his hands covered hers at the front of his trousers, and then lifted her eyes back to his with question. "Wha-what are you doing?"

"I.." He swallowed thickly. "I want to ask you the same thing."

She looked back down at their hands. "I thought you wanted to make love?"

"I did," he began. "I mean I _do_. I _definitely_ do_._" He swallowed again, surprised that his mouth was so horrifically dry. "I thought that's what we were doing? _Or_, at least what we were getting ready to do."

She shook her hands underneath his to indicate what he was stopping her from doing and looked into his face with an expression of incredulity. "Well to do _that_, Doctor. Don't I need to, you know, free the beast?"

"The _beast_?" His face fell into an expression of total bafflement. "What _beast_ needs to be set free before we can make love, Rose?" He stared at her look of incredulity with his expression of confusion for a very long moment. With her look unwavering, he let his eyes fall to the placement of their hands. Realization hit him directly in the chest. He released her hands and backed off a couple of steps. His hands here held high in front of him.

"Y-You," he stammered uncomfortably. "You want to _mate_?"

Rose clumsily dragged her fingers along her cheek to pull her hair from her face. "Mate?"

He nodded hurriedly. "Yes. Mate. As in rutting, shagging, screwing, and any other term you humans have coined to describe the act." His eyes widened in abject terror as he shook his head and backed off another step. "_That's_ what you wanted from me when you asked me to make love to you?"

Rose shrank just slightly against the wall. "Of course it was, Doctor," she said meekly, barely audible against the heaviness of his breath. "What else did you think I meant?"

He shook his head. "Oh Rose. I'm sorry."

She couldn't lift her eyes to look at him. "No. _I'm_ sorry. I misunderstood. I-I thought you were into it. I thought you wanted to make love to me."

He let out a breath as he calmed the beating of his hearts and carded his fingers through his hair. "I _do_ want to make love to you, Rose. Incredibly so. Ask me right now to give myself to you and make love with you and I will throw it all in the wind and take what you're offering me right here and right now…"

She lifted her face to look at him with complete confusion. "Then why did you push me away?"

"…But I am not mating with you, Rose. Not here." He looked around with disgust. "Definitely _not _here." His eyes flicked to hers. "Not like this."

The look she gave him was completely indescribable. Set somewhere between frustration, disbelief, fury and embarrassment, it shrank the Time Lord in place. Bless him if he didn't feel somewhere around two inches tall.

"Look, Rose…"

"I would've thought that after all this time together that I would stop feeling like every one of our conversations was always so bloody mental," she accused with a growl. He then huffed. "Guess I was wrong."

"Well forgive the cultural confusion I may have had regarding the differences between _making love_ and _mating_…"

"What's the damn difference?" she barked back irritably. "They're the same thing!" She threw her back up against the wall in frustration. "With one you repeat _I love you _over and again, with the other you scream _fuck me_ _harder _until the one or both of you has an orgasm."

The fall of his face into an indignant expression was fast. "Wow."

"Try to keep the disgust out of your voice, will you?"

The Doctor was still for a moment and watched Rose slide into a despondent slouch against the wall. Her chest heaved and her eyes watered. He could tell it was taking every ounce of strength not to fall apart on him again. With a sigh, he walked toward her and pressed his hands into the wall either side of her head. He leaned against his hands, with his arms outstretched, and held himself in a low wnough stoop that his eyes lined up with hers.

"It appears, Rose Tyler, that we are experiencing a phenomenon known as a _misunderstanding._" He waited until her eyes met with his to continue. "And if I'm to be honest with you. I am becoming alarmed at the rising rate of incidences of _misunderstandings _that are occurring between the two of us. You and me…" He pulled one hand from the wall only long enough to gesture between them, and then set it back beside her head. "Are supposed to be much more in synch than that, don't you think?"

She looked at him tiredly. "I don't know _what_ to think anymore." She rolled her shoulder against the wall to lift herself from it, but found herself caught frustratingly between the Time Lord and the wall behind her. "Doctor, please. Let's just forget about this, yeah?"

He shook his head. "I lost you once because of a misunderstanding, Rose. I'm not letting that happen again."

Her tired eyes moved to his. Her voice was as defeated as her posture. "You lost me because you left me, Doctor. Because you jumped on a horse, jumped through a mirror, shattered the connection to the time windows – knowing full well you had no way back – all to save and _dance_ and who knows what else with your precious Madame De Pompadour."

"My _precious_ Madame de Pompadour," he repeated slowly with question to what she was insinuating with that term saturating his tone of voice.

"And I get it," Rose continued. "I do. She was beautiful, refined, intelligent, accomplished. I can see why you fell in love with her as quickly and as hard as you did." She inhaled a shaking breath. "She was everything I'm not. She was royalty…"

"Technically so are you," he offered softly. "Dame Rose."

She glared at him for that. "I'm not being funny."

"No," he agreed. "You're not."

"God," Rose barked sharply. There was embarrassment on her face. "I really want to say that this is all about just being left behind on that ship, Doctor. The parts of me that don't want to admit how selfish I am want me to say that and leave it at that."

"But…?"

"But it's a lie," she answered with a defeated huff. "Mostly anyway. Yeah. You left me and Mickey," she lifted her eyes back to his. "And that hurt me, Doctor. It hurt me in the worst possible way that you did that."

He dipped his head when she tried to look away from him. "But I came back," he reminded her firmly.

"Yeah, you did," she agreed. Then her voice fell. "Kind've." She exhaled hard and pushed a hand down on the Doctor's wrist to remove it from the wall and give her the freedom to pace away from him. After a step or two, she turned back to him. "You came back, yeah, but not in one piece. You left your heart back there with that woman. That. That. That refined, perfect, beautiful, intelligent, regal, uncrowned-bloody-Queen. Here I am just a lowly shop-girl with no education, no…"

"Stop," he demanded angrily.

She twisted to look over her shoulder at him. There was equal shock and anger in her glare. "Ex-_cuse_ me?"

"I said stop," he repeated firmly. "I know I said earlier that I was a pompous and arrogant bastard – and I'll admit that to anyone who'll listen."

"What's that got to do with anything…?"

"But I won't accept hearing an accusation like that coming from you, Rose." He strode quickly to her and stood chest against chest, looming tall over her. "Especially when that accusation is made because you've made assumptions."

She looked up at him, defiance in her eyes battling against the hardness inside his. "What assumption is that?"

He exhaled sharply through his nose and looked ready to launch a tirade down at her. Instead, however, he spun on his heel and stalked a stride away from her.

"My people, Rose, are all that and more," he began on a low voice. "All of them. A century at the Academy where the art of being a pompous arse is compulsory training Time Lord one-oh-one, where learnings in several different artistic protocols is mandatory. We are refined, arrogant, artistic, aristocratic and accomplished peoples." He laughed facetiously. "We call ourselves _Lords_, Rose. Lords and Ladies of Time." He spun to look at her. "Royal pompous assholes, every one of them."

Rose rolled her eyes and lifted her shoulders in an exasperated huff. "Yeah. So?"

"_So_, Rose?" he snapped. "So is that I _left_ that society. I picked up, packed up, stole myself a TARDIS and took off as far as I can get from that kind of regimented societal norm."

Rose swallowed thickly. "Uhm.."

"That was the environment I ran away from," he continued with a softer tone of voice. "And I have no desire at all to return to that in any way, shape, or form. That kind of woman, although fascinating to behold when you're a time traveler wandering about in history, is not one I would suggest was _my type_ of lover." His brow furrowed tight. "Quite the opposite, really."

Rose sniffed, but said nothing.

"You know what I do love," the Doctor continued, although any trace of upset in his voice had vanished completely. "What I think is one of the greatest gifts to a traveler?" He looked to Rose. "Do you?"

Rose kept her lips bitten tightly together and shook her head.

The Doctor looked away from her and grinned into the orange light of the courtyard. "A little shop." He hummed a happy sound and looked back to Rose. "I love a little shop. You know I do. They're always so full of everything that is special about wherever they are. Knick Knacks and souvenirs that remind you of happy adventures. It holds stories and picture cards, oh and sweets – I love sweets…"

"What point are you trying to make, Doctor?"

"My _point_," he answered with a dip in his shoulder that lowered his smile into her view. "Is that I love a little shop."

Rose slumped, let out a grunt, and turned to walk away. "You're mental."

He hooked an arm around her waist to stop her retreat and clicked his tongue in her ear. "Let me finish," he sang as he curled his other arm around her waist and smiled into her face. "I love my little shop and my precious girl who worked in one." His face contorted into a wince of disgust. "If I wanted pomp and circumstance, Rose, I would've stayed on Gallifrey." He traced the thumbs of both hands up and down her lower spine. "You can have all the refinement and education that the universe can afford you, doesn't mean that you're brilliant…"

"She was," Rose said with a huff.

"She _was_," he agreed. "But she was also quite full of herself, don't you think? Can't be much room in there to love someone else when you fancy yourself so much." He frowned. "That's a competition you're bound to lose."

"Then why were you so sad, Doctor, when you came back?"

He pursed his lips and blew out a breath. "Well. She died, didn't she? Can't exactly come bouncing in like an excited puppy when the woman you just risked everything for to save her life died five minutes after I saved her." He pursed his lips. "Well. Okay. In her timeline she died several years later, but to me it was mere moments." He shrugged. "It stung a little."

"Did you love her?"

The frown he gave her was one of utter disbelief. "How could you _possibly_ have come to that conclusion? I didn't even _know_ her, Rose." He rolled his eyes. "Sure," he sang. "I admired her and her accomplishments. She was a brilliant woman for her time. But it really takes more than a few hours of bouncing through her timeline to fall in love with her." He then chuckled. "Besides. I'm a selfish and possessive bastard, really. That's a woman you have to share with someone else. No ta."

Rose licked at her lip and inhaled a deep breath of remorse. "I see."

"Have we adequately cleared up that little misunderstanding, then, Rose?" he questioned with a cheeky tone of voice and smile. "Am I making it clear that my hearts beat for my precious shop-girl and not the arrogant mistress of a serial womanizer?"

Rose walked into his chest and dropped her forehead into the small valley between his pecs. She nodded her head against him. "I'm an idiot."

"Nah," he drawled with a drop of his chin onto the top of her head. "In love, selfish and possessive, perhaps. But not an idiot." He chuckled. "Well. Falling in love with me might award you some level of idiocy. Word about council on Gallifrey is that I'm not such a prized catch."

She lifted her head to press her face into his neck. "I think you are."

"Then, yeah," he chuckled. "You're an idiot."

The sound of her laughing against his neck sent a shudder of happiness up the length of his spine.

"Now that we've cleared that up, Rose Tyler," he began firmly. "Let's move on to the more recent of our misunderstandings. Specifically the issue of love making versus mating, and your belief that they're one in the same thing."

Rose groaned in embarrassment.

"Uh-uh," he chided with a smile as he released her from his hold and led her toward a small picnic bench near the wall of the alcove. He gently pushed her down to sit on the table and took her hands in his. "It is quite important, you know, the distinction between the two and how we agree to move on from here."

Rose hooked her hair behind her ear and nodded her assent for him to continue. "The mechanics are the same, yeah?"

He frowned and shook his head. "No. Not at all."

She blinked quickly a few times and then looked to him with wide eyes. "I-I don't understand. The only thing different is the emotion attached to it."

"They're very, very different acts, Rose." He knelt on the wooden seat of the bench and settled himself in between her parted knees. He licked at his lips and lifted his hands to her face. He settled his fingers on her cheeks and looked to her with hopeful eyes. "Let me show you," he whispered softly. "I'll make love to you now. Here."

She gulped in a deep inhale and trembled under his touch. "Okay."

"Let me lead you, Rose," he requested gently as he crawled his fingers up to her temples and lay them gently against her skin. "Only let me take it as far as you want it to go."

"All the way, Doctor," she answered quickly.

He shushed her with a chuckle. "Be careful what you're agreeing to, my precious girl. If you're not careful, we'll end up permanently bound you'll never be rid of me."

"That's not such a bad thing," she vowed passionately.

His eyes softened at the vehemence he could see in hers, and he let out a shuddering breath. "Close your eyes," he coached softly. "And don't be scared. Remember, I've got you."

Her eyes fluttered shut and her lips pursed outward as she relaxed. "What's there to be scared of…?" Her breath hitched deep and her back suddenly straightened as she felt an immense sensation of high emotion collide hard against her temples and then rush down through her belly and into her toes. An unspeakable pleasure followed the emotion, and all Rose could do was gasp in a deep and sighing breath. She felt her entire body seize as the emotions writhed and pulsated inside her, twisting and turning through a third wave of desire and longing.

Rose struggled for balance, even though she was seated and held securely within the Doctor's hold. She panted and whimpered as she swatted her hands blindly outward to seek out and clutch desperately at the Doctor's forearms.

"Touch me, Rose."

Did she hear that request, or did she think it? Rose didn't know. She maintained her fierce grip on the Doctor's forearms and called out to him.

His voice peppered each syllable of his words against her face. "It's okay, Rose. I've got you. I'm right here." There was a slight pause. "But I need you to touch me, Rose. Rassilon please touch me. I need you. I-I can't do this without you."

She may have nodded, but she wasn't sure. Far too focused on the unspeakable and borderline unbearable pleasure from his touch, Rose fumbled with how to do the same to him. Without thought, she let her hands fall from his arms and down to the front of his trousers.

"No no no no," he corrected with begging. "No, Rose. Not like that."

She snapped her hands from the front of his trousers and flailed them unsurely at her thighs. "Then how?"

The Doctor slightly lessened his contact with her only long enough for him to take her hand, but she felt the impact of that loss like a wailing punch to her gut. She whimpered for him and opened her eyes to look for an answer as to what she had done wrong.

His eyes were closed and his lips parted. There was a deep crease in his brow when he lifted her hand to his face, but that crease fell out completely when pressed her fingers against his temple and found the connection he'd been so desperately seeking. His jaw dropped further and she watched him straighten up in much the same manner she had when he'd touched her.

Her mind screamed of her love for him and as her other hand rose to touch at the opposite temple, and his hand returned to hers, Rose Tyler came apart completely.

There was no way for her to describe the soul shattering pleasure that rocked her head to toe at his touch. She couldn't begin to comprehend the mosaic of emotions that wound themselves around that pleasure like writhing tentacles, glistening and pulsating with incredible light. She was overwhelmed and captivated at the building pressure of emotions against pleasure. She wanted to run and hide inside it for all eternity; to wrap herself in these most intense of emotions and never again emerge to see the light of day.

She panted frantically, and struggled against the pressure as it grew. She was forced to a sudden stand atop the bench's seat, looming over the man kneeling penitently below her.

"Rose. I love you."

Oh, his sentiment was sorely inadequate when put beside the tidal wave of emotions he was sending her at the moment. She wanted to reply in kind, oh absolutely she did, but there was no words in any Earth language that she could find that could express anywhere close to what she was feeling for him right now.

"There _are_ no words," he assured her. "But I know, Rose. I know."

She let herself fall completely at that. She allowed that swirling mass of brilliant pleasure and emotion finally engulf her completely. She held it to her tighter, and tighter, letting the pressure swell up and build until she didn't' think she could take it anymore.

Finally, with a sudden white-washing noiseless and blinding wave, the pressure peaked and exploded inside her. She let out a desperate yell of his name. Her hands pulled suddenly from his face, and Rose fell forward, down from her stand on a bench seat of a picnic table, down from the dizzying heights of where she'd been taken, and down into his arms.

She panted helplessly into his oxford shirt as she tried desperately to gather herself and come back to Earth.

He dropped his lips into her hair and then rolled his face to rest his cheek heavily against her hair. Like Rose, he struggled to catch his breath, but he was able to chuckle lightly against her scalp.

"So. Are the differences between making love and mating a little more clearer to you now?"


End file.
